AFP: Georgia reports attacks as thousands rally

MICHAEL MAINVILLE AND IRAKLI METREVELI TBILISI, GEORGIAAug 12 2008 18:41Georgia said on Tuesday that Russian attacks on the country continueddespite Russia's pledge to halt its military offensive as 100 000people gathered in central Tbilisi in a mass outpouring of patriotism.Having already lost South Ossetia, Georgia withdrew from the lastsliver of Abkhazia controlled by government forces, the Kodori Gorge,and said bombings and troop movements persisted elsewhere."We have left Kodori. There was an evacuation," Interior Ministryspokesperson Shota Utiashvili said, adding that he could provide nofurther details.The secretary of Georgia's National Security Council said that Russiantroops and heavy artillery were also on the move near Abkhazia,heading towards the Georgian region of Mestia.The Georgian Foreign Ministry claimed that Russian bombers had alsoattacked three villages near South Ossetia, with an ambulanceallegedly destroyed in one of them.None of the claims could be confirmed independently.In Tbilisi, about 100 000 people gathered on the main avenue of thecity in front of parliament to hear Georgian President MikheilSaakashvili, face etched with emotion, deliver a rousing speechinsisting "tiny" Georgia would survive.President Dmitry Medvedev earlier on Tuesday said he had ordered ahalt to Russia's onslaught on Georgia, saying its neighbour had beenpunished but could be hit again.A claim Russia had earlier targeted the strategic Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhanpipeline in Georgia, a United States-backed route for oil from theCaspian Sea to Western markets, was denied in Moscow.Before the ceasefire call, the Georgian city of Gori near SouthOssetia came under bombardment, with a Georgian journalist and hisdriver killed when a shell hit their car in the central square, aAgence France-Presse reporter witnessed.A cameraman for Dutch television channel RTL was also killed and acorrespondent for the channel injured, RTL said on its website.Later, Georgian police armed with automatic weapons and grenades movedinto Gori and appeared to be getting ready to patrol the city, thereporter said.Georgia's minister of defence, escorted by special forces, also paid avisit to the hospital there, he said.At his speech in central Tbilisi, Saakashvili announced that Georgiawould quit the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), aMoscow-dominated regional grouping of ex-Soviet countries, and urgedUkraine to follow suit."We have taken a decision: Georgia is quitting the CIS. We urgeUkraine and other countries to follow our decision."He added: "Soviet Union, goodbye forever!"Arriving at the rally, Maia Metreveli (46) said that she had come "tobe with my people"."We would rather die than be under the Russian regime," she said. "Idon't know what is going to happen. No one can predict what theRussians will do but we know they are capable of anything."Fighting between Russia and Georgia broke out last week after theGeorgian army launched an offensive to bring South Ossetia, whichbroke away in the early 1990s, back under government control. --Sapa-AFP