Tbilisi

Timeline by 12th of August 14:50

12 August

14:50 Village Sakoritno in Kaspi region and village Ruisi in Kareli region are bombed by Russian aviation

14:00 In village Agara (Khashuri region) Russian military jets bombarded an ambulance vehicle

13:25 Three Russian airplanes dropped bombs on the village of Orchosani near Gori.

12:30 Vasiani base nearby Tbilisi has been bombed by Russian planes.

12:25 Oil pipeline 5 km from the city of Rustavi has been bombed.

10:15 Russian planes bombed Gori. The territory around administration building and city market have been bombed.

In the morning ours of 12 August Russian airplanes bombed the village of Tkviavi near Tskhinvali once again.

03:25 Russian envoy to the UN Churkin announced on the press conference that Russia will not support the resolution. Georgian envoy Alasania announced that suggested resolution is acceptable to Georgia.

02:15 Emergency meeting of the Security Council of the UN started. The resolution about cease-fire prepared by France was discussed.

02:05 Russian aviation bombarded Kaspi 30 Km from Tbilisi out of conflict zone. 3 bombs were dropped near the Heidelberg Cement factory (one from the two cement factories in the country). No damage was reported.

Government of Georgia
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, August 12 - 18:45 Tbilisi, Georgia

President announces Georgia's withdrawal from Commonwealth of Independent States

The President of Georgia today announced that Georgia will withdraw from the Commonwealth of Independent States. He also appealed to other members of the CIS withdraw as well.

Government of Georgia
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, August 12 - 21:50 Tbilisi, Georgia

Russian Forces Block Humanitarian Corridor To Tskhinvali, Deny Entry to Medical Personnel

Georgian medical staff trying to enter Tshkinvali via the humanitarian corridor established after Georgian forces announced their ceasefire and withdrawal from South Ossetia have been denied entry by Russian forces that control the city.

Emergency staff are urgently trying to gain access to the city to provide vital medical support to injured Georgian and South Ossetian civilians. The city has been virtually destroyed by the Russian invasion. There are currently no medical supplies remaining there.

The humanitarian corridor was established by Georgian forces specifically to enable the safe passage of refugees out of the conflict zone, and allow access to the city and its surrounding area for emergency medical personnel.

For further information, please contact:

Nato Chikovani, Press Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia: +995.77.507.726

Government of Georgia
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, August 12 - 17:50 Tbilisi, Georgia

URGENT: Georgia confirms continued presence of massive Russian occupation force, bombings, ethnic cleansing & economic warfare Contrary to some media reports and to the statement by Russian President Medvedev, Russian occupation forces are fully operational in Georgia with at least 12,000 troops throughout the country, many of them outside of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. This is no way represents a "halt to military operations" or a "halt to war" as many media outlets are reporting.

Specifically, at this hour:

• Russian soldiers occupy the Georgian Black Sea Port of Poti, which they have destroyed and where they have killed nearly 100 civilians. The port is blockaded and their are tanks on the roads outside of Poti.

In recent hours:

• Russian forces have bombed Gori city center for the first time, where two journalists were reported killed today and a hospital was bombed.
• In western Georgia, Russian troops ordered members of the civil administration to abandon their posts—In Senaki, Russian forces bombed and are believed to have mined a major Georgian army base. The base had been evacuated prior to the attack.
  

Ambassador of Georgia to the USA, Canada and Mexico H.E. Dr. Vasil Sikharulidze
National Press Club
Washington, DC
11 August, 2008

I want to thank each of you for coming here at this late hour. I appreciate your attendance on such a short notice.

The time is a critical for my country – a free and democratic Georgia faces extinction at the hands of a brutal Russian invasion that is designed to change state regime in Georgia and destroy the country. This must not, must not, be allowed to happen.

As I stand here, Georgian military units have pulled back to the capital and formed a final defensive perimeter awaiting another Russian attack.

The entire country of Georgia since Friday has faced overwhelming attacks as Russia has used its military might to invade my country—by land, by sea and by air. Cyber attacks have taken down government websites and news outlets to blind the media and world community to their invasion.

Make no mistake, this Russian invasion was premeditated, well planned and executed. Russia has used the separatist conflicts in South Ossetia and Abkhazia that it masterminded, organized, financed, and fought alongside the separatists in the early 1990s, as a launch pad for its military invasion.

Minister Frattini continues to follow the situation in Georgia with close concern

Rome 10 August 2008

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Franco Frattini, continues to follow developments in Georgia with close concern. He is liaising with the Premier, Silvio Berlusconi and staying in constant contact with his colleagues in the major EU and Atlantic countries.

Minister Frattini exchanged views today, 10 August, with the French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, and the Finnish Foreign Minister, Alexander Stubb, in view of their mission to Tbilisi and Moscow in their roles as, respectively, President of the European Union’s Council of Ministers and current Chairman of the OSCE.

During their talks Minister Frattini stressed the need for the greatest possible cohesion between the countries of the EU on the lines proposed by the French Presidency. He also underscored the timely need for close coordination between the European countries in the United Nations Security Council, and Germany, in order to establish a common position in view of the forthcoming discussions in New York.

According to the reliable information held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Russian servicemen and separatists carry out mass arrests of peaceful civilians of Georgian origin still remaining on the territory of the Tskhinvali region and subsequently concentrate them on the territory of the village of Kurta.

Georgia appeals to the International Red Cross and other humanitarian and international organizations and the international community as a whole to immediately take decisive and effective measures for the evacuation of this population from the conflict zone.

Tbilisi, 11 August 2008

Timeline by 11th of August 07.15

August 10 - 11, 2008

• 07:15 Senaki airport is bombed by Russian airplanes.
• 06:10 Gori tank battalion is bombed. A civilian apartment building nearby has been hit.
• 05:00 Shiraki airfield in Dedoplistskaro District on the east of the country is bombed by Russian jets.
• 04:37 Civilian radar station in the village of Leninisi in 5 kilometers from downtown Tbilisi.
• 03:05 Villages of Sharabidzeebi, Kapandichi, Makho near Batumi are bombed by Russian planes. Graveyard and villagers’ backyard have been hit. No casualties reported.
• 00:30 Civilian radar station in the village of Shavshvebi west of Gori is bombed by Russian planes.
• 00:00 Five wounded policemen transported to Zugdidi hospital from Upper Abkhazia.
• 20:00 Positional fighting near village of Qvabchara in Upper Abkhazia.
• 19:10 “Tbilaviamsheni” aviation factory was bombarded by Russian aviation again.
• 19:05 Russian aviation dropped bomb on Tbilisi International Airport.
• 18:00 The Black Sea town of Anaklia 280 km from Tbilisi, is bombed by Russian airplanes. No casualties reported
  

August 10, 5:00 pm EST

New Developments

• The last 72 hours military forces of the Russian Federation launched combined air and ground attacks on Georgian territory. This act of aggression is tantamount to an invasion and declaration of war against Georgia and comes at a time when Georgia has been trying to integrate itself with Euro-Atlantic institutions and strengthen its democracy and free market economy.
• Ukraine threatens to block Russian warships from returning to the port of Sevastopol. “Ukraine…reserves the right to bar warships and vessels which could take part in the action (conflict with Georgia) from returning to Ukrainian territory,” read a Foreign Ministry statement released on Sunday. The Russian warfleet consisting of 11 ships is deploying to the Georgian coast and holds the potential for cutting off Georgia’s access to the sea.
• Civilian infrastructure continues to be bombed with the Baku-Ceylan energy pipeline a target. Bombs missed the pipeline but further attacks are expected.
• Russians are using strategic weapons against Georgian civilian targets according to reports including Tu-22 bombers (capable of delivering nuclear missiles), and land-based cruise missiles mounted with conventional explosives. The Tu-22 can carry more than 50,000lbs of bombs.
• Russia’s 58^th Army, known as the Butchers of Chechnya, is leading the Russian assault against Georgia. This army received international condemnation for slaughtering civilians in Chechnya. Read more in the LA Times article Chechens Say Real Horror Began After Battle Ended, http://www.cdi.org/russia/Johnson/3710.html##4.
• NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Russia violated Georgia's territorial integrity in South Ossetia and employed a "disproportionate use of force."
• Russian troops continue to pour into South Ossetia. According to reports more than 6,000 soldiers including special forces, 90 tanks and 150 armored personnel carriers have passed have arrived in the last 24 hours.
• Russian tanks attempt to break out of South Ossetia and drive to the strategic Georgian city of Gori demonstrating their clear intention to take and hold Georgian territory.
• Polish, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Presidents condemn Russian aggression in a joint statement. “We regret that not granting of the NATO’s Membership Action Plan (MAP) to Georgia was seen as a green light for agression in the region.” http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5572&Itemid=65
• Georgian forces have withdrawn from Tskhinvali, South Ossetia.
• President Saakashvili again appeals for a cease fire to stop the bloodshed.

Reuters

08.10.08, 2:26 PM ET

RUSSIAN FEDERATION - (Recasts with U.S., Russian and Georgian envoys)

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 10 (Reuters) - The United States suggested on Sunday that Russia was interested in "regime change" in Georgia after Moscow rejected Tbilisi's offer of a cease-fire in the separatist region of South Ossetia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the president of Georgia "must go," the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, told the Security Council.

Khalilzad then looked straight at Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin and asked if Moscow was looking for "regime change."

"Is the goal of the Russian Federation to change the leadership of Georgia?" he said.

Churkin did not directly address the question but said there are leaders who "become an obstacle."

"Sometimes those leaders need to contemplate how useful they have become to their people," Churkin told reporters later.

"Regime change is purely an American invention," he said. "We're all for democracy in Georgia."

In Moscow, Lavrov said the departure of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was not a must to solve the crisis but that Russia no longer saw him as a partner.