Georgia declares ’state of war’ over South Ossetia

Peter Walker
The Guardian
August 9, 2008

Georgia today declared itself at war as Russian planes bombed a Georgian city in an escalation of the conflict over South Ossetia. Moscow claims the fighting has killed more than 2,000 people.



As world leaders including George Bush and Pope Benedict XVI called for calm, the neighbouring countries edged closer to a full-scale conflict over their conflicting claims and allegiances to the territory.

Officials in another breakaway province, Abkhazia, said separatist forces had launched air and artillery strikes to drive Georgian troops out of the small part of the territory they still control. Georgia accused Russia of backing the Abkhazians.

The Kremlin said its forces were in control of the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, but Georgian officials denied this. The city is reportedly heavily damaged from Georgian bombardment and heavy fighting.

Russian planes today bombed the Georgian city of Gori, near the South Ossetian border, leaving apartment buildings ruined and ablaze. Witnesses reported scores of dead, including children and old people.

Russia's ambassador to Georgia, Vyacheslav Kovalenko, told Interfax that at least 2,000 civilians had died in Tskhinvali alone since Georgia attacked the region on Friday and Russia responded with tanks, air raids and ground troops.

The Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, dismissed Russian casualty claims as "a lie", saying very few civilians had died.

Tonight a senior US official described the Russian response in Georgia as "disproportionate". Earlier today president George Bush, in Beijing for the Olympic games, spoke to Saakashvili and the Russian president, Dmitri Medvedev, today to urge calm. The Kremlin said Medvedev told Bush the only way to end the conflict would be a withdrawal of Georgian forces.

The UK's special representative to the South Caucuses, Sir Brian Fall, was this evening attending emergency talks in Georgia with other officials from the US, European Union, Nato and the Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Moscow supports South Ossetia, which has had de facto independence from Georgia since 1992 after a bloody war. Many people in the region have Russian citizenship. Georgia claims South Ossetia as part of its territory.

Addressing a televised meeting today, Saakashvili described the conflict as open warfare. "I have signed a decree on a state of war. Georgia is in a state of total military aggression," he said, while calling for "an immediate ceasefire".

The decree allows for the mobilisation of reservists, among other measures. Georgia says it plans to remove its entire contingent of 2,000 troops from Iraq so they can assist in South Ossetia.
Vladimir Boldyrev, the commander of Russian ground forces, was quoted by Tass as saying Russian troops had "fully liberated Tskhinvali from the Georgian military".

Georgia, which said today it had downed 10 Russian aircraft and destroyed up to 30 tanks, maintains it is holding Tskhinvali. Witnesses in the city said they could only see Russian forces.
Russia – which has confirmed the loss of two planes – says it first sent tanks and artillery to Tskhinvali to prevent Georgian forces attacking Russian peacekeepers and civilians.

Aside from the regional impact, the fighting threatens to increase tensions between Russia and the US. Georgia is a close American ally and Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has said the US must bear some of the blame for arming and training Georgian soldiers.

Bush, speaking before heading to watch the US women's basketball team in Beijing, said he was "deeply concerned about the situation", notably Russia's bombing inside Georgia.

"The attacks are occurring in regions of Georgia far from the zone of conflict in South Ossetia," he said. "They mark a dangerous escalation in the crisis.

"We call for an end to the Russian bombings."

At the United Nations last night, Russian and Georgian envoys hurled accusations at each other as a divided security council failed to agree on language calling for an end to the fighting. Holding its second emergency meeting in under 12 hours, the council broke off in a stalemate late but was to reconvene today.

There are fears of full-blown war in the region, which is a crucial energy transit route in which Russia and the west are vying for influence.

In Abkhazia, which declared independence from Georgia but is still claimed by Tiblisi, Sergei Shamba, the region's foreign minister, said its forces intended to oust Georgian forces from the Kodori Gorge. The northern part of the gorge is the only area of Abkhazia that has remained under Georgian government control.