Aug 12, 2008 8:00 pm US/Eastern
Georgian President Accepts Cease-Fire Plan
MOSCOW (CBS News) ―
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Georgian civilians walk past an abandoned Georgian army mobile artillery unit near the town of Gori on August 12, 2008.
Burak Kara/Getty Images
Georgia's president says he agreed to an EU plan with Russia brokered by France for ending fighting in his country.
Russia's president has also agreed to the plan negotiated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy that calls for both Russian and Georgian troops to move back to their original positions.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili told reporters after talks with Sarkozy late Tuesday and early Wednesday that "there should be a cease-fire." Sarkozy said the Georgian leader would sign the plan.
Some sticking points remained, including over Russian peacekeepers in Georgia's breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, where most residents hold Russian citizenship and where fighting has raged in recent days.
Russia ordered a halt to military action in Georgia Tuesday and agreed to the peace plan Tuesday, after five days of air and land attacks that forced tens of thousands to abandon their homes and left some areas of Georgia in smoldering ruins.
Russia said its military assault was ending because its mission has been accomplished, reports CBS News correspondent Richard Roth. But accusing the Georgian leader of starting the war - even calling him a lunatic - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made clear the Kremlin's army's isn't pulling out.
Georgia insisted that Russian forces were still bombing and shelling despite the pledge by President Medvedev and rejected Russian calls for Saakashvili to resign. Thousands rallied in Georgia's capital, joined by the presidents of five other former Soviet bloc states who railed against Russian dominance.
Russian-backed separatist forces pushed Georgians out of their last stronghold in the breakaway province of Abkhazia on Tuesday after days of air and artillery strikes.
There was still real danger in the battle-scarred city of Gori, Roth reports.
Five people were killed in explosions on the main square - even though the fighting was supposed to have stopped. A Dutch journalist was among the victims.
A curfew was declared overnight Tuesday to Wednesday in South Ossetia, where the original fighting broke out last week. Georgian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nino Tchikovani said Georgians still in South Ossetia were being shot at Tuesday night despite the Russian vow to stop fighting. The claim could not immediately be confirmed.
Sarkozy crafted the end solution to the crisis after hours of talks with Medvedev in Moscow, then tried some shuttle diplomacy, heading off to present the plan to Saakashvili in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.
The plan, which both men accepted, calls for both Russian and Georgian troops to move back to their original positions, end all fighting immediately and hold an international discussion on the future status of Georgia's breakaway provinces.
"Could Europe be involved in a peacekeeping mission? Europe is available to do that, of course," Sarkozy said at a news conference in Moscow.
Georgia borders the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia and was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Its breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, where most residents hold Russian citizenship, have hosted Russian peacekeepers since fighting to leave Georgia in the early 1990s.
Saakashvili said his government would declare the Russian peacekeepers occupying forces - but Medvedev insisted Tuesday that they will stay.
Tens of thousands of terrified residents have fled the fighting - South Ossetians north to Russia, and Georgians west toward Tbilisi or east to the country's Black Sea coast.
While world leaders crafted peace plans in the halls of power, military forces on the ground were still carving out a new geographical map.
Russia launched an offensive Tuesday in the only part of Abkhazia still under Georgian control. An AP reporter visiting the village of Chuberi saw 135 Russian military vehicles driving through Georgia en route to Abkhazia's Kodori Gorge.
Georgian troops in the gorge faced heavy shelling, and by Tuesday night, Abkhaz military officials said all Georgian forces had been pushed out of the gorge.
Fleeing Georgians said the entire population of the gorge - some 3,000 people - had abandoned their homes, some so quickly they didn't even have time to grab food or belongings. Many homes had been damaged by shelling, they said.
"It feels like an annexed country," said Lasha Margiana, a local village administrator in Kodori.
"We left when the shelling started, we don't have food," said refugee Madlena Guarmiani.
In Tskhinvali, South Ossetia's provincial capital, the body of a Georgian soldier lay in the street along with debris. A poster hanging nearby showed Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the slogan "Say yes to peace and stability" as South Ossetian separatist fighters launched rockets at a Georgian plane soaring overhead.
In Moscow, Medvedev said on national television that Georgia had suffered enough for its attack on South Ossetia but must pull all troops from South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
"The aggressor has been punished and suffered very significant losses. Its military has been disorganized," Medvedev said.
An AP photographer in the village of Ruisi near South Ossetia saw fresh damage from a Russian air raid Tuesday morning that residents said killed three villagers and wounded five. One slain victim, 77-year old Amiran Vardzelashvili, was struck by a fragment in the heart while was working in a field.
The Georgian government said another nearby village of Sakorinto also was bombed.
The Russian general Nogovitsyn dismissed Georgian reports that warplanes again bombed an oil pipeline and accused Georgia of spreading false reports to rally anti-Russian sentiments in the West. Still, the British oil company BP shut down one of three Georgian pipelines as a precaution.
Medvedev said people in both breakaway provinces must be allowed to decide whether they want to remain part of Georgia.
The U.N. and NATO held meetings Tuesday to deal with the conflict, while Poland's president and the leaders of four former Soviet republics flew to Georgia in a show of solidarity with Saakashvili.
"Our neighbor thinks it can fight us. We are telling it no," Poland's Lech Kaczyinski told the rally in Tbilisi.
Russia "thinks that old times will come back, but that time is over," he said, urging all of Europe and NATO to come to Georgia's side.
Earlier, he said it was "good news" that Medvedev ordered a halt to military action.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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