Georgia president signs cease-fire with Russia

[David]

AP


TBILISI, Georgia - A reluctant Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said Friday he signed a cease-fire agreement with Russia and declared in the presence of the chief U.S. diplomat that the West had behaved in ways that invited the invasion.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she had been assured that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will sign an identical document. The United States says the pact protects the former Soviet republic's interests despite concessions to Moscow.

"With this signature by Georgia, this must take place and take place now," Rice said. She did not say what, if anything, the United States would do if Russia defies the truce.

Near tears at times, Saakashvili said he will "never, ever surrender" in the showdown with much-larger Russia.

"You are dealing with a people who despise anything human," Saakashvili said of invading Russian forces.

Saakashvili said the West sent a disastrous signal to Russia by denying Georgia a door to NATO membership.

Saakashvili, whose leadership is founded on a close alliance with Washington that has always aggravated Moscow, said that Russia had interpreted NATO's snub of Georgia as capitulation. He spoke hours after President Bush accused Russia of "bullying and intimidation" against Georgia. Bush, delivering a formal statement outside the Oval Office at the White House, said the people there chose freedom and "we will not cast them aside."

Saakashvili did not appear enthusiastic about the cease-fire pact, but Rice defended it as a good way to return all forces to their prewar positions. She said that the signed pact obligates Russia to withdraw forces from Georgia immediately.

"Georgia has been attacked," and the world must help ensure that the country's independence and borders remain intact, she said following nearly five hours of meetings with Saakashvili. Their joint news conference was delayed by more than three hours, a sign that the talks were difficult.

"This is not a done deal," Saakashvili said. "We need to do our utmost to deter such behavior in the future."

At one point, the beleaguered Georgian leader said: "Sorry for these emotions. But I feel emotion."

Rice said the time has come "to begin a discussion of the consequences of what Russia has done. This calls into question what role Russia really plans to play in international politics."

Apparently concerned that Saakashvili's lengthy tirade had set the wrong tone, Rice spoke briefly on her own before leaving Georgia.

"It's obviously a very emotional time here in Georgia," she said after visiting wounded people in a hospital.

"It's clearly a very emotional time but I think that it should still be seen that this was a productive day. I hope now that peace can return to Georgia and Georgians can return to a normal life."

Bush, preparing to travel to his Texas ranch earlier Friday, said that while away from Washington, he'll keep in close touch with Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

"Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century," Bush said. He reiterated Gates' assertion of Thursday that Moscow's behavior in Georgia has damaged its relationship with Washington and its Western allies.

Rice had said earlier that the immediate goal was to get Russian combat forces out of Georgia and more difficult questions about the status of the country's separatist regions and Russia's presence there could be addressed later.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Friday that 82 tons of humanitarian supplies have been delivered to Georgia so far in four aircraft flights. He said the U.S. military is planning to do another two flights each day through the weekend.

There are still roughly 100 U.S. military personnel in Georgia — ranging from military trainers to security personnel at the embassy. Some of the trainers are scheduled to leave because they are reservists and their tour is over, Whitman said.

"The United States would never ask Georgia to sign onto something where its interests were not protected," she told reporters aboard her plane as she flew to the Georgian capital from France where she met French President Nicolas Sarkozy who brokered the cease-fire.

The cease-fire require Russia to withdraw its combat forces from Georgia but allows Russian peacekeepers to remain in the breakaway region of South Ossetia and conduct limited patrols outside the region.

A draft of the document did not commit Russia to respecting Georgia's "territorial integrity," but rather refers to Georgian "independence" and "sovereignty." That means Moscow does not necessarily accept that Georgia governs South Ossetia and a larger separatist territory, Abkhazia.

Officials say the eventual status of the two areas will be worked out under existing U.N. Security Council resolutions which recognize Georgia's international borders. Those borders now include the two provinces where many Russian citizens and loyalists live.

The U.S. and its allies had been pushing for Russia to agree to restore the situation to the status quo before Georgian troops moved into South Ossetia last week, prompting Russia's severe response and seven days of bloodshed.

Now they have been forced to back down on the key issues of the mandate of Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia, which did not previously include outside patrols, and the territorial integrity question, which Russia ostensibly accepted before but no longer does.

U.S. officials concede the agreement is not perfect but maintain it will get Russian combat troops out of Georgia, ideally within days.

In addition to the cease-fire document, Rice carried with her a letter signed by Sarkozy that clarifies the special security measures that Russian peacekeepers will be allowed to take on Georgian soil, officials said.

The cease-fire would allow Russian peacekeepers who were in South Ossetia before the fighting broke out to stay and to patrol temporarily in a strip of up to 6.2 miles, or 10 kilometers, outside, officials said.

Officials say the expanded mandate would end as soon as a team of international monitors could be sent to observe, something they believe can be done in weeks.