Presidents attend Georgia rally after cease-fire deal
MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- The Russian and French presidents announced Tuesday a six-point plan of principles for settling the immediate conflict in Georgia but stopped short of tackling the issues that sparked the violence.
Nicolas Sarkozy, left, and Dmitry Medvedev outline the deal and the problems ahead.
"We have not achieved peace yet, but we have achieved a provisional cease-fire of hostilities," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said.
The points include Russian agreements to conclude all military operations, return Russian armed forces to the line preceding the beginning of operations and not use force again in Georgia.
In return, Georgia would return its armed forces to their normal and permanent locations.
Both sides would provide free access for humanitarian assistance; and international consideration of the issues of South Ossetia and Abkhazia would be undertaken.
"All we need to do now is to stop suffering, stop the death of people," Sarkozy said. Stopping the fighting "is the most important objective."
He emphasized that the meeting with Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev was not intended to solve all of the issues, such as Georgia's territorial integrity and South Ossetia's desire for independence.
"There are bigger problems relating to South Ossetia that we cannot resolve here," Sarkozy said, who arrived in Moscow as current head of the European Union.
Sarkozy said he and Medvedev agreed that Georgia is an independent country and that Russia has no intention of annexing it. But Medvedev also said "sovereignty is based on the will of the people" and "territorial integrity can be demonstrated by the actual facts on the ground."
Medvedev said, "I think that these are some very good principles in order to resolve the problem which has arisen from this very dramatic situation and these principles can be used by Georgia and South Ossetia."
Medvedev said he had ordered an end to military operations against Georgia, but Tbilisi reported more attacks after the statement was made. 
Watch Georgia's reaction to halt in fighting »
Medvedev said, "the aggressor has been punished and has incurred very significant losses. Its armed forces are disorganized."
Tens of thousands of Georgians converged on the capital, Tbilisi, for a day of rallies. In the evening they waved French, U.S. and Georgian flags at a rally where President Mikhail Saakashvili was joined by the leaders of Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Lativia. Watch the rally »
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said, "I wanted to make very clear that the United States stands for the territorial integrity of Georgia, for the sovereignty of Georgia; that we support its democratically elected government and people, and are reviewing options for humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to Georgia. But the most important thing right now is that these military operations need to stop."
U.S. officials said they were considering flying aid from bases in Germany to Georgia. There was also consideration being given to sending U.S. Navy ships into the Black Sea to conduct humanitarian relief missions.
Violence has raged since Thursday, when Georgia launched a crackdown on separatist fighters in autonomous South Ossetia, where most people have long supported independence.
Russia, which supports the separatists, responded Friday, sending tanks across its border into South Ossetia. The conflict quickly spread to parts of Georgia and to Abkhazia, another separatist region.
Russia said it wanted to stop Georgian military actions against its peacekeepers in the breakaway regions.
The Georgian government said that despite Medvedev's announcement, Russian warplanes struck two Georgian villages and bombed an ambulance outside the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Watch more on the fighting in South Ossetia »
Medvedev warned in his announcement that "when pockets of resistance and other aggressive actions occur," a decision concerning destruction had to be made.
Earlier, a Georgian Interior Ministry official said Russian bombs had hit one of the three pipelines carrying oil to the Black Sea port of Poti. There was no oil in the pipeline at the time. 
Interactive map: See how far the Russians have advanced »
UK-based energy giant BP later said it had shut down three oil pipelines in the region as a "precautionary measure" linked to the security situation. None of its pipelines had been attacked.
A Dutch cameraman was killed Tuesday morning in an incident in Gori, the Dutch Foreign Ministry confirmed. He was identified as Stan Storimans of RTL TV. The correspondent who accompanied him was also injured.
One Russian diplomat said that up to 2,000 people had died in the conflict. Up to 100,000 people are thought to have been displaced by the violence, which has left South Ossetia's capital of Tskhinvali in ruins.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that his country wanted a demilitarized zone to be created in Georgian territory before a cease-fire could take effect. Watch Lavrov speak about Georgia »
Lavrov said that it would be best if Saakashvili stepped down as Georgia's president, something he has not offered to do, but that Russia was not demanding his resignation.
4 comments:
Not sure what was the bluff and why those fools laughted?
The bluff was causing Russia not to arrest Saakashvili and punish him for invading Ossetia, and the fools laughing are a result of the US getting other Baltic states, Poland and Ukraine to get together to try to turn a disaster into a propaganda victory.
The Baltic States, Ukraine and Poland were nowhere to be found when Georgia was getting attacked, but now they come out like there has been some grand collaboration.
Georgia started the whole thing and the media have tried to spin it like some massive Soviet invasion, and many people are confused.
I think Medvedev did not look like a fool at all - he looks like a responsible politician who respects principles of international law. The fools are presidents of all these absolutely unimportant for the world policy fake states who pretend that they have policy of their own but who are doomed by their historical stupidity, inferiority complex and arrogance backed by a "current keeper" for the roles of puppets and marionettes.They can only prostitute their "fake" sovereignty and "voting rights" in "worn-out" bureaucratic international insittutions to get various financial benefits. As long as the US and West-European countries need them for their game against Russia or China, they exist, if their "services" are not required, their existence would not be even visible outside their backward provincialhood. Russia should completely disregard their marionette performance and mind its own political and, most importantly, economic interests without paying attention to the inevitable "barking" of these domesticated by Western money pudels (another US pudel, Tony Blair, is already flushed down the toilet by the world history - that what happens to every political prostitute). At this point, when Western aspirations to get control of Russian enormous natural resources is so apparent, Russia should only mind its security and disregard any rhetorics, explanations of its action, "guilt complexes", and all these trivia. Whatever Russia does, the West would find fault anywhere. Thus, we are what we are and we mind our own interests. And who is this "civilized, democratic, law-abiding" Western world after the US invasion of Iraq, which rewrote the principle of sovereignty and territorial integrity? Enough is enough for Western policy of double standards. If Western countries have been really honest and guided by any moral principles, they would have applied them accordingly. But since they are what they are, why should Russia or any other state bother about their barking?
First off, there is no such thing as international law. Period. It is a myth.
Second, to me he does look like a fool. It is a fool to "respect intenational law" when all the other nations don't. And now that the US is going to go into Georgia and start arming it even further, Russia made a very bit strategic error. This move by the US of placing more military in Georgia will NOT promote peace.
But I agree with you about the small states and their puppet leaders. And YES, they look like disgusting fools, too (Medvedev looks like a fool, but not a disgusting one, just one who made a critical error). The leaders of Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are truly disgusting and pathetic and the Baltic state leaders are completely being used as pawns. The neo Cons have in one fell swoop reverted to a Cold War mentality and posture, now that the terrorism schtick lost its bite (plus people's greater vigilance for false flags).
But I agree with you that the Western states would find fault with Russia whatever it does, and I also agree that the West is lacking in any moral principles.
In short, I very much appreciate your comments, and think that you are quite astute, though we disagree on some less than major points.
Please keep contributing.
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