By Matt Robinson 54 minutes ago
TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgia called for international intervention on Monday and pulled its battered forces back to the capital, as Russiantroops pushed deep into its territory, ignoring Western pleas to halt.
"The Georgian army is retreating to defend the capital. The Governmentis urgently seeking international intervention to prevent the fall ofGeorgia," a Georgian statement said.President Mikheil Saakashvili said Russian forces had taken control ofGeorgia's main east-west route, effectively bisecting the country. Heurged Georgians to stay home and not panic.
Moscow snubbed a plea from the Group of Seven (G7) industrial powersfor a ceasefire. It said Georgia had not kept a promise to haltfighting and was shelling the Russian-held region of South Ossetiawhere the conflict began last Thursday.
The fighting has unsettled oil markets because Georgia hosts a keypipeline supplying the West. It has alarmed investors in Russia andhas raised fears of a wider conflagration in the volatile regionbordering Iran, Turkey and Russia.A feeling of uneasiness pervaded Tbilisi as for the first time in fournights, city streets were largely empty, with no evening demonstrationby the president's supporters."We are working with an international community, but all we got so farare just words, statements, moral support, humanitarian aid,"Saakashvili said in a televised address. "But we need more -- we wantthem to stop this barbaric aggressor.
"The conflict erupted last Thursday when Georgia sent forces to retakeSouth Ossetia, which threw off Georgian rule in the 1990s and declareditself independent, albeit without international recognition.French President Nicolas Sarkozy was expected in Moscow and possiblyGeorgia on Tuesday for talks on behalf of the European Union, thoughit was unclear what could be achieved.U.S. President George W. Bush was due to make a statement on theconflict at 5:15 p.m. EDT (2115 GMT) on Monday.
Five liberal leaders from central and eastern Europe -- Poland,Ukraine and the three Baltic states -- planned to visit Tbilisi in ashow or support for Saakashvili.PARLIAMENT TO SITAn emergency session of parliament was called on Tuesday.
"The situation in Georgia is extremely difficult as Russia is usingall its resources to occupy the country," Saakashvili said, referringto what he said was the capture of a major road.Georgia's prime minister, Lado Gurgenidze, told television viewersRussian troops had entered Poti, an oil and dry cargo shipping centreon the Black Sea coast. They were also in two other towns in westernGeorgia -- Senaki and Zugdidi.
Russia's Defense Ministry denied its forces were in Poti. Officialsearlier said Russian troops had advanced 40 km (25 miles) from asecond separatist enclave, Abkhazia, to capture Senaki, but theministry later said they had left the town.Russian officials have said they have no intention of occupyingterritory beyond the two separatist areas.A Reuters witness saw Georgian helicopter gunships bombing targetsnear the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, sending dark smokebillowing into the air. A second reporter heard heavy artillerybombardments on the road north of the wrecked town.
CONVOY HEADS FOR TBILISI
A senior Georgian official at one point said Russian troops had seizedthe Georgian town of Gori, some 40 km (25 miles) from South Ossetia,though Reuters correspondents saw no evidence of Russian forces in thetown. One saw a column of Georgian military trucks moving eastwardsfrom Gori towards Tbilisi.A senior parliamentarian, Nika Rurua, later said that Russian forceswere positioned outside Gori.
Moscow responded with a counter-attack by its vastly bigger forcesthat drove Georgian troops out of the devastated South Ossetiancapital Tskhinvali on Sunday. Russia says 1,600 people have beenkilled in the fighting and thousands more are homeless but thesefigures are not independently verifiable.Saakashvili earlier said he had agreed to a plan proposed by FrenchForeign Minister Bernard Kouchner under which hostilities would end, amixed peacekeeping force would be deployed and troops would return topre-conflict positions.
Women and children wept in the streets of Tskhinvali on Monday as theysurveyed the destruction amid continued Georgian shelling. Russiantroops distributed water and food from trucks.One elderly resident told Reuters how she sheltered in a cellar withher 7-year-old grandson during the bombardment."My grandson screamed: 'Uncle Putin please help us, help us so thatthe Georgians don't kill me !'. They were screaming and crying it wasterrible, a nightmare," she said."Thank God the Russians have come. It is getting better."Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who has taken a leading role inthe crisis, attacked the United States for helping Georgia fly hometroops from Iraq and said the West was mistaking the aggressors forvictims in the conflict -- a reference to strong Western support forGeorgia.Putin mocked the support given by the West to Saakashvili, comparinghim to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who was hanged in 2006 forexecuting Shiites."They (the Americans) of course had to hang Saddam Hussein fordestroying several Shiite villages," Putin said."But the current Georgian rulers who in one hour simply wiped 10Ossetian villages from the face of the earth, the Georgian rulerswhich used tanks to run over children and the elderly, which threwcivilians into cellars and burnt them -- they (Georgian leaders) areplayers that have to be protected.
"Russia said at a daily military briefing that it had lost fourmilitary aircraft and 18 soldiers since the fighting started, withanother 14 missing in action and 52 wounded.Russian financial markets slid to their lowest levels in two yearsearly Monday as investors panicked over the conflict.
Stocks later reversed some of their losses on suggestions by President Dmitry Medvedev that the war may be nearing an end.
For special coverage see
http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/georgiaconflict
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