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New shooting in South Ossetia
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-08 15:23 A week of clashes and escalating tension in South Ossetia has raised fears of an all-out war that could draw in Russia, which has close ties with South Ossetia's separatist leadership. At the request of Russia, the United Nations Security Council began meeting in emergency session starting at 11 p.m. Thursday (0300 GMT Friday) in New York. Council members held private talks on a Russian-drafted statement that would have the council expressing "serious concern at the escalation of violence" and calling on all sides "to cease bloodshed without delay and to renounce the use of force." On Thursday evening, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili had announced a unilateral cease-fire in a television broadcast in which he also urged South Ossetian separatist leaders to enter talks on resolving the conflict. Saakashvili also proposed that Russia could become a guarantor of wide-ranging autonomy for South Ossetia, if the region remains under Georgian control. Georgian officials have alleged that Moscow is provoking the recent clashes. South Ossetia's separatist President Eduard Kokoity blamed Georgia and called Saakashvili's cease-fire call a "despicable and treacherous" ruse, Interfax reported. The Russian Foreign Ministry laid in with similar criticism, saying "the actions by Georgia in South Ossetia bear witness to the fact that the leadership of that country can no longer be trusted," the agency said. Heavy shelling overnight Wednesday in South Ossetia killed at least one person and wounded 22, officials said Thursday. It was some of the most severe fighting reported since August 1, when six people were reported killed around Tskhinvali. The South Ossetian separatist government said Tskhinvali and nearby areas came under heavy artillery and mortar shelling from Georgian-controlled territory early Thursday, wounding 18 people. But Georgian authorities said they were forced to retaliate when South Ossetian separatist forces started firing on Georgian troops in the area. One Georgian soldier was killed and four were wounded, Georgian national security council head Alexander Lomaya was quoted as saying by Interfax. Russia has soldiers in South Ossetia as peacekeeping forces, but Georgia alleges they back the separatists. Russia also was criticized by the West as provoking tensions by sending warplanes over South Ossetia last month. Most of South Ossetia, which is roughly 1.5 times the size of Luxembourg, has been under the control of an internationally unrecognized separatist government since a war there ended in 1992. Georgian forces hold several swaths of it. Russia also has close ties with a separatist regime in Abkhazia, another Georgian breakaway province. An open war in either region could prompt Russia to send in more forces under the claim of protecting its citizens. Relations between Georgia and Russia worsened notably this year as Georgia pushed to join NATO and Russia dispatched additional peacekeeper forces to Abkhazia. |
