2008 South Ossetia war
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| 2008 South Ossetia war | |||||||||
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| Part of Georgian–Ossetian conflict and Georgian–Abkhazian conflict |
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 Location of Georgia (including Abkhazia and South Ossetia) and the Russian part of North Caucasus |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Russian Federation South Ossetia Abkhazia |
 Georgia |
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| Commanders | |||||||||
| Dmitry Medvedev (commander-in-chief)[3] Anatoly Khrulyov (58th Army)[4] Vyacheslav Borisov (76th Airborne)[5]
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Mikheil Saakashvili (commander-in-chief)[10] Davit Kezerashvili [10] Mamuka Kurashvili (WIA)[11] |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| Est. at least 15,000 regulars in Georgia (as of 13/08/08),[12] not including support and rear troops (in Russia and on the sea) 3,000 regulars and 15,000 reservists;[13] unknown number of volunteers unknown number of volunteers, potential of 45,000 according to the [14]
At least 23,000 total |
Estimate: 12,000 troops including 75 tanks and armoured personnel carriers[15] Total military personnel is 37,000 as of 2007[16] Reserves number up to 250,000.[17] Unknown number of Georgian Police deployed in the conflict zone |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| South Ossetia: 300 killed, 41 captured (Georgian estimate)[18] Confirmed by Russia: 48 killed, 157 wounded and 6 captured[19]Confirmed by Abkhazia: 1 killed, 2 wounded[20] |
Confirmed by Georgia: 144 soldiers killed, 25 missing, 42 captured and 1,964 wounded;[21][22][23] 14 policemen killed and 22 missing[24][23][25] Independent Georgian estimate: 400 Killed Russian intelligence estimate: 3,144 Killed |
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| Civilian casualties: Georgia: Officials claimed at least 228 Georgian civilians killed[26][27]; and 872 missing[27][28][25]; One foreign civilian killed and 3 wounded.[23] South Ossetia: Russia and South Ossetian officials initially claimed 1,492 South Ossetian civilians killed. These numbers were disputed by Human Rights Watch and Memorial[29][30]. The Russian Procurator's office says it's investigating 365 deaths. [31][32][33] Human Rights Watch believes Russian and South Ossetian figure of 300-400 civilians is a "useful starting point"[34] South Ossetia: Displaced from South Ossetia to Russia: Russian estimate, 30,000; HRW estimate, 24,000.[39][40] |
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The 2008 South Ossetia War (The 2008 Russia-Georgia conflict) consisted of an armed conflict between Georgia on the one side, and Russia and the separatist self-proclaimed republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on the other. It occurred in August 2008 and involved land, air and sea warfare.
A civil war fought after the breakup of the Soviet Union left parts of South Ossetia under the control of an unrecognised separatist government backed by Russia. Other parts remained under the control of Georgia. Hostilities escalated during June and July 2008. On the evening of August 7, 2008, Georgia launched a ground- and air-based military attack on South Ossetia's capital, Tskhinvali. Russia responded by sending troops into South Ossetia and launching bombing raids farther into Georgia.[41][42][43] The events during 7 August remain a matter of debates and controversy [15][44]. On August 8, Russian naval forces blocked Georgia's coast and landed ground forces and paratroopers on Georgian coast. Russian and Abkhazian forces opened a second front by attacking the Kodori Gorge, held by Georgia,[45] and invaded western parts of Georgia's interior. After five days of heavy fighting, Georgian forces were ejected from South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Russian troops invaded Georgia proper, occupying the cities of Poti and Gori among others.[46]
Following mediation by EU chairman, French president Nicolas Sarkozy, the parties reached a preliminary ceasefire agreement on August 12, signed by Georgia and Russia on 15 August in Tbilisi and on August 16 in Moscow. On August 12, president Medvedev had already ordered a halt to Russian military operations in Georgia[47] but fighting did not stop immediately.[48] After the signing of the ceasefire Russia pulled most of its troops out of Georgia proper. However, Russia established "buffer zones" around Abkhazia and South Ossetia and check points in Georgia's interior (Poti, Senaki).
On August 26, 2008 Russia recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. International monitoring personnel was deployed in Georgia on October 1. Following international agreements, Russia completed its withdrawal from Georgia on October 8.[49] Russian troops remain stationed in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, including areas under Georgian control before the war, under bilateral agreements with respective governments.[50]
A number of incidents have occurred in both the border conflict zones since the war ended.
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[edit] Naming
Commentators have applied various names to the 2008 South Ossetia war. Some of the names include:
- August War[51]
- Five-Day War[52]
- Georgia-Russia conflict[53]
- Russian-Georgian War[54], Russia-Georgia War[55] or Russo-Georgian War[56]
[edit] Background
- See also: Georgian-Ossetian conflict, South Ossetian independence referendum, 2006, and 2008 Georgia-Russia crisis
The Ossetians, an Iranic-speaking people, look to the Don River area for their ethnic origins. In the 13th century, they were pushed southwards and settled along the border with Georgia during the Mongol invasions.[57][58][59] Ossetians and Georgians have had a long and complex history with periods of peaceful coexistence interspersed with violence from both sides.
In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, Georgia stayed Menshevik controlled, while the Bolsheviks took control of Russia. In June 1920, a Russian-sponsored Ossetian force attacked the Georgian Army and People' Guard.
"The Georgians reacted with vigour and defeated the insurgents and their supporters in a series of hard-fought battles. Five thousand people perished in the fighting and 20,000 Ossetes fled into Soviet Russia. The Georgian People's Guard displayed a frenzy of chauvinistic zeal during the mopping-up operations, many villages being burnt to the ground and large areas of fertile land ravaged and depopulated."[60]
Eight months later, the Red Army successfully invaded Georgia[61] and in 1922 the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast was created.
In 1990, as the USSR neared collapse, the longtime anti-Soviet dissident Zviad Gamsakhurdia was emerging as Georgia's first independent leader. In basing his campaign for the presidency on a nationalist platform,[62] dubbed Georgia for Georgians,[63][64][65][66] he projected ethnic Georgians, who at the time constituted 70% of the population, as the country's true patriots, to the debasement of South Ossetians as newcomers.
Amidst rising ethnic tensions, a military conflict broke out in January 1991 when Georgia sent in troops to crush a separatist movement. Estimates of deaths in this fighting exceed 2,000 people. During the war several atrocities occurred on both sides, including atrocities committed by Georgian troops in Tskhinvali. Approximately 100.000 Ossetians fled Georgia and South Ossetia, while 23.000 Georgians left South Ossetia.[67][68][62][69] The war resulted in South Ossetia, which had a Georgian ethnic minority of around one fifth of the total population (70,000),[70] breaking away from Georgia and gaining de facto independence. After a cease-fire in 1992, Tskhinvali was isolated from the Georgian territory around it and Russian, Georgian and South Ossetian peacekeepers were stationed in South Ossetia under the JCC's mandate of demilitarization.[71][72] The 1992 ceasefire also defined both a zone of conflict around the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali and a security corridor along the border of South Ossetian territories.
In late 1994, Georgia's Supreme Council ordered the disbanding of the South-Ossetian autonomous region (oblast). The government in Tbilisi established Georgian as the country's principal language, whereas the Ossetians' first two languages were Russian and Ossetian.[62]
The conflict remained frozen until 2003 when Mikheil Saakashvili came to power in the Rose Revolution which ousted president Eduard Shevardnadze. In the years that followed, Saakashvili's government pushed a program to strengthen failing state institutions,[73] including security and military. In 2007, Georgia spend 6% of GDP on its military and had the highest average growth rate of military spending in the world.[74][75] Restoring South Ossetia and Abkhazia (a region with a similar movement) to Georgian control has been a goal of Saakashvili since he came to power.[76]
In the 2006 South Ossetian independence referendum, 99% of those voting supported full independence, although ethnic Georgians living in the region did not participate. Georgia accused Russia of the annexation of its internationally recognised territory and installing a puppet government led by Eduard Kokoity and several officials who previously served in the Russian FSB and Army.[77][78][79][80]
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stated that he would "protect the life and dignity of Russian citizens wherever they are".[81] The proportion of Russians living in South Ossetia has always been low (in 1989, Ossetians accounted for around 60 percent, Georgians 20 percent, Armenians 10 percent and Russians 5 percent of the population), but about 7/8 of South Ossetians have been issued with Russian passports.[82] Reuters describes the government as "dependent on Russia, [supplier of] two thirds of [its] annual budget", and reports that "Russia's state-controlled gas giant Gazprom is building new gas pipelines and infrastructure" worth hundreds of millions of dollars to supply its cities with energy.[83] In mid-April, 2008, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Prime Minister Putin had given instructions to the federal government whereby Moscow would pursue economic, diplomatic, and administrative relations with Abkhazia and South Ossetia as with the subjects of Russia.[84]
Georgia has a close relationship with the United States, which has helped to train and arm the Georgian military.[85] While Georgia has no significant oil or gas reserves on its own, it is an important transit route that supplies the West.[86] The pipeline has been a key factor for the United States' support for Georgia, allowing the West to reduce its reliance on Middle Eastern oil while bypassing Russia and Iran.[87]
[edit] Prelude to war
In April 2008, Georgia accused Russia of shooting down a Georgian spy plane flying over Abkhazia. Russia denied involvement. Also Georgian interior ministry officials showed the BBC video footage of Russian troops deploying heavy military hardware in the breakaway region of Abkhazia and said that "it proved the Russians were a fighting force, not just peacekeepers." Russia denied the accusations.[88]
At 8:05 a.m. on 1 August two roadside bombs hit a Georgian police vehicle on a detour road connecting Georgian-populated villages near the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali.[89] The five policemen were wounded[90] (six according to the secondary sources [91][92]). Late in the evening, intense fighting began between Georgian troops and the forces of South Ossetia. Georgia claimed that South Ossetian separatists[93] had shelled Georgian villages in violation of a ceasefire. South Ossetia denied provoking the conflict. A South Ossetian militiaman was killed by sniper located in a Georgian police post.[94] The Russian peacekeeping command reported that snipers killed at least three people in Tskhinvali around 9 p.m. The command also reported that Tskhinvali came under mortar fire from the Georgian villages of Ergneti and Zemo Nikozi.[95] At 11 p.m. on 1 August South Ossetian side (information from the republican hospital in Tskhinvali) said that six people killed (Roin Doguzov, 22 years old; Garick Bestaev, 38 years old; Anatoliy Kabisov, 45 years old; Vyacheslav Dudaev, 38 years old, Dudick Guchmazov, 40 years old, and Djioev) and seven injured.[96]
On 2 August the South Ossetian side[who?] said that shelling and shooting resumed overnight. Mamuka Kurashvili, a Georgian Defense Ministry official in charge of overseeing peacekeeping operations, said that the Georgian side had opened fire in response to shelling of Georgian villages. Six civilians and one Georgian policeman were injured as a result of shelling of the Georgian villages of Zemo Nikozi, Kvemo Nikozi, Nuli and Ergneti, the Georgian Interior Ministry said.[95] The South Ossetian side said that another two people, including a Russian soldier from the Russian North Ossetian peacekeeping battalion, were killed in fighting on August 2, bringing the toll to six people killed and about 15 injured as a result of intense shooting by the Georgian side directed towards Tskhinvali and nearby Ossetian villages late on August 1 and overnight on August 2.[97][98]
The Russian military exercise Caucasus Frontier 2008, held almost concurrently with the joint US-Georgian Immediate Response 2008 exercise, ended on 2 August, after roughly one month of operations.[99][100]
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On 5 August, Russian ambassador-at-large Yuri Popov warned that Russia would intervene in the event of military conflict.[101][102] Dmitry Medoyev declared from Moscow that volunteers were already arriving, primarily "from North Ossetia", in the Republic of South Ossetia to offer help in the event of Georgian aggression.[103][104]
On 6 August South Ossetia and Georgia failed to agree on the format of talks. South Ossetian side had proposed holding a JCC session with the participation of Georgian, South Ossetian, Russian and Russia’s North Ossetian negotiators in Tskhinvali on 9 August. Tbilisi has consistently refused to participate in the quadripartite JCC talks.[105]
According to the eyewitness account of a Nezavisimaya gazeta correspondent sporadic heavy shelling of Tskhinvali by Georgian military started on August 6. The weapons used by Georgians, the eyewitness claims, were mortars, artillery and sniper rifles. South Ossetian military officials speculated that the Georgian army was preparing for a full-scale attack on the city. Russian correspondents report that the city was under artillery and mortar fire that continued all night long.[106]
[edit] Active stage of the war
[edit] Events of August 7
Georgian officials claim that on August 7 at around 2 p.m. Ossetian artillery fire that had begun the night before resumed, targeting Georgian positions in the village of Avnevi in South Ossetia and continuing for several hours. Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze reported the killing of two Georgian peacekeepers.[10] At 3 p.m., OSCE monitors on patrol saw large numbers of Georgian artillery and Grad rocket launchers massing on roads north of Gori, just south of the South Ossetian border.[10][107] At about 7 p.m., President Mikheil Saakashvili ordered a unilateral ceasefire after Georgian troops had occupied several important heights around Tshkinvali.[108][107] According to the Georgian military, fighting intensified despite the declared ceasefire.[109][110] South Ossetia denies any such night bombardment of Georgian forces or villages. An OSCE monitoring group in Tskhinvali also did not record outgoing artillery fire from the South Ossetian side before the start of Georgian bombardment,[10][107] and NATO officials attest to minor skirmishes but nothing that amounted to a provocation, according to Der Spiegel.[41] The Russian and Ossetian governments claim that Saakashvili's ceasefire was as an attempt to buy time while Georgian forces positioned themselves for a major attack.[10][111] During a news broadcast that began at 11 p.m., Mikheil Saakashvili announced that Georgian villages were being shelled, and vowed to restore Tbilisi's control by force over what he called the "criminal regime" in South Ossetia to "reinforce order".[107][110] At 11:30 p.m. on August 7, Georgian forces began a major artillery assault on Tskhinvali.[112] At 11:45 OSCE monitors report shells falling on Tskhinvali every 15–20 seconds.[112] The Georgians used 27 rocket launchers, including 152-millimeter guns as well as cluster bombs. Three brigades began the nighttime assault.[41] Georgia claims that it was responding to Russian troop movements, this claim has not gained support from Georgia's western allies.[15] According to Georgian intelligence[44] and several Russian sources, parts of 58th Russian Army moved to South Ossetian territory through the Roki Tunnel before the Georgian attack on Tskhinvali.[113] [114] [115][116][117][118] NATO experts did not question the Georgian claim that the Russians had provoked them by sending their troops through the Roki Tunnel. But their evaluation of the facts was dominated by skepticism that these were the true reasons for Saakashvili's actions.[41] According to an article published in the New York Times on November 6, no conclusive evidence has been as yet presented by Georgia or its Western allies that Russia was invading the country before the Georgian attack or that the situation for Georgians in the Ossetian zone was so dire that a large-scale military attack was necessary.[107]
[edit] The Battle of Tskhinvali
Early in the morning of August 8, Georgia launched a military offensive, codenamed Operation Clear Field[119], to surround and capture Tskhinvali.[120] At 12:15 a.m., General Marat M. Kulakhmetov, commander of Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia, reported to the OSCE monitors that his troops had come under fire and that they had casualties.[107] According to a Russian military official, over 10 Russian Peacekeeping force servicemen stationed in Tskhinvali were killed during the attack.[121] The heavy shelling, which included Georgian rockets being fired into South Ossetia[122] left parts of the capital city in ruins, which Russian government sources claimed amounted to genocide. The news of the shelling was extensively covered by Russian media prior to the military reaction that followed, as Russia claimed to have responded in defense of South Ossetians against what they called "a genocide by Georgian forces."[123] Russia claimed civilian casualties may amount up to 2,000 dead in Tskhinvali following the Georgian shelling.[124] The extent of civilian casualties was later disputed in a number of sources, with Human Rights Watch report speaking of only 44 dead in Tskhinvali's city hospital, leveled with the BM-21 "Grad" multiple missile systems during the shelling of the city. The Tskhinvali hospital, HRW reports, was under constant shelling for 18 hours. [125] [126]
South Ossetian militias and Russian soldiers offered resistance to the advancing Georgian troops.[127] In the morning, Georgia announced that it had surrounded Tskhinvali and captured eight South Ossetian villages.[128] At 17:35, in a televised address, Mikheil Saakashvili announces that "Georgia controls Tskhinvali and most South Ossetian villages and regions.".[129] However, at 21:22 the South Ossetian government said it is fully in control of Tskhinvali, but that Georgia is making attempts "to retake the city."[129] According to a report in Der Spiegel, the attacking Georgian troops became bogged down and failed to advance further than Tskhinvali.[127] According to an article in the Washington Post, 1,500 Georgian ground troops had entered the centre of Tskhinvali by 10 a.m. on August 8, but were pushed back three hours later by Russian artillery and air attacks.[10] The BBC has discovered evidence that Georgia may have committed war crimes during its attack and occupation of Tskhinvali, including possible deliberate targeting of civilians.[130] The Human Rights Watch found some evidence of firing being directed into basements, locations which civilians frequently choose as a place of shelter.[131]
According to Georgia, Russian military aircraft violated Georgian airspace around 10 a.m. on 8 August.[132] Starting around 2 a.m., international press agencies began running reports of Russian tanks in the Roki tunnel.[133] According to a senior Russian official, the first Russian combat unit, the First Battalion of the 135th Regiment, was ordered at around dawn of August 8 to move through the Roki Tunnel and reinforce the Russian forces in Tshkinvali. According to him, the unit passed through the tunnel at 2:30 p.m. It reached Tshkinvali at the evening, meeting heavy resistance from Georgian troops. Georgia disputes the account, saying that it was in heavy combat with Russian forces near the tunnel long before dawn of 8 August. [134]
During the evening of August 8, vicious fighting took place in the area of Tskhinvali and in South Ossetia.[135] The fighting in South Ossetian towns and villages was done by the local militia and volunteers, while Russian troops concentrated on engaging larger Georgian army groups.[136] Russia also undertook action to suppress the Georgian artillery and the Russian Air Force launched strikes on Georgia's logistical infrastructure.[137] According to some reports, Russian special units prevented Georgian saboteurs from blowing up the Roki Tunnel, which could have hindered the sending of reinforcements to South Ossetia.[138]
On the early afternoon of August 9 the Russian military stated that Georgian forces had been driven out of Tskhinvali and that the city had been "fully liberated."[139]
After being driven out or pulled back from Tskhinvali, the Georgian units regrouped with armoured reinforcements from Gori. On the later half of August 9, the regrouped Georgian forces reportedly launched a new offensive against Russian and South Ossetian defenders of Tskhinvali, using heavy tube and rocket artillery, while heavy fighting was reportedly underway on the city outskirts with Georgian forces, breaking through the defense and the rebel sources reporting three enemy tanks destroyed.[140] Just before midnight a five-hour artillery onslaught on the city ended, but the fighting with the Georgian infantry in the south of Tskhinvali continued. The South Ossetian forces supposedly complained, that Georgia had not yet provided a peace corridor to evacuate the civilians, who were caught up in crossfire. [131]
By August 10, the joint Russian and South Ossetian forces regained control over the city as the Georgian military withdrew.[141] However, according to the Russians, some Georgian snipers and mobile infantry groups still remained in Tskhinvali.[142] According to the Georgian Defence Minister, the Georgian military tried to push into Tskhinvali three times in total. During the last one, they got a very heavy counter attack which Georgian officials described as "something like hell."[10] In total, the fighting in the Tskhinval area lasted for three days and nights, by the end of which Georgian artillery was either destroyed or had left its positions, from which it could shell the city and Georgian ground troops pulled out of the city.[143]
[edit] Bombing and occupation of Gori
- See also: Occupation of Gori
Gori is a major Georgian city close to the border with the de facto independent republic of South Ossetia, about 25 km from Tskhinvali.[144] It was the staging area for the Georgian army during the fighting for the capital of South Ossetia and was bombed several times by the Russian Air Force.[145]
Around 6 a.m. on 9 August, Reuters reported that two Russian fighters had bombed a Georgian artillery position near Gori.[146] A later attack hit the central district of the city, killing one Dutch journalist.[147] An air-to-ground missile also hit the Gori hospital.[148] Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international rights group, accused Russia of deploying controversial and indiscriminately deadly cluster bombs on civilian areas of Georgia. According to HRW at least eight civilians were killed and dozens injured when a Russian aircraft dropped cluster bombs in the centre of Gori on August 12.[149] According to the Russian military, three bombs hit an armament depot and the façade of one of the adjacent 5-storey apartment buildings suffered as a result exploding ammunition from the depot.[150] The Georgian government reported that 60 civilians were killed when at least one bomb hit an apartment in Gori.[151]
On the evening of August 10, large numbers of the civilian population began to flee the city.[152] By the next day 56,000 people fled the district. The next day, at 5 p.m., the Georgian army started to abandon the city in disarray, without firing a shot, following their defeat at Tskhinvali.[153] A Times reporter described the Georgian withdrawal as "sudden and dramatic", saying that the Gori residents watched in horror as their army abandoned their positions.[153] Around August 13 Russian ground forces entered Gori.[153][154][155] On August 14, the Russian Ministry of Defence official Vyacheslav Borisov claimed that the city of Gori was controlled jointly by Georgian Police and Russian troops. He further said that Russian troops would start leaving Gori in two days.[156] Russian troops said they were removing military hardware and ammunition from an arms depot outside Gori.[157] Russian troops were also seen on the road from Gori to Tbilisi, but they turned off to the north, about an hour from Tbilisi, and encamped. Georgian troops occupied the road six miles (about 10 km) closer to Tbilisi.[158][159]
The Russian forces denied access to some humanitarian aid missions seeking to assist civilians. The United Nations, which has described the humanitarian situation in Gori as "desperate," was able to deliver only limited food supplies to the city.[160] On August 15, Russian troops allowed a number of humanitarian supplies into the city but continued their blockade of the strategically located city.[161][162] In the August 17 report, HRW said the organization's researchers interviewed ethnic Georgians from the city of Gori and surrounding villages who described how armed South Ossetian militias attacked their cars and kidnapped civilians as people tried to flee in response to militia attacks on their homes following the Russian advance into the area. In phone interviews, people remaining in Gori region villages told HRW that they had witnessed looting and arson attacks by South Ossetian militias in their villages, but were afraid to leave after learning about militia attacks on those who fled.[160] The Russian human rights group Memorial called these attacks "pogroms".[163]
The occupation lasted until August 22.[164]
[edit] Abkhazian front
- See also: Battle of the Kodori Valley
According Russian Ministry of Defense an action in the Black Sea off Abkhazia on August 9 resulted in a Georgian naval unit being sunk by the Russian Navy. The Russians claimed that Georgian ships had violated the security zone of the Black Sea Fleet and therefore the action was in accordance with international law. Following the action, the remaining Georgian ships withdrew to a nearby harbor.[165] On August 10 Abkhazia declared a full military mobilization to drive out the 1,000 Georgian troops from their remaining stronghold in the Kodori Valley.[166] The next day, Russian paratroopers deployed in Abkhazia carried out raids deep inside Georgian territory to destroy military bases from where Georgia could send reinforcements to its troops sealed off in South Ossetia. Russian forces reached the military base near the town of Senaki outside Abkhazia on the 11th, leaving the base there destroyed.[167] Russian troops also drove through the port of Poti, and took up positions around it.[168] On August 12, the Abkhazian authorities announced the beginning of military operations against Georgian troops in the Kodori Gorge area.[166][166] On the same day, Georgia said it was withdrawing its troops from the Kodori Gorge "as a gesture of goodwill".[169] On August 13, all of the remaining Georgian forces, including at least 1,500 civilians in the Kodori Valley, had retreated from Abkhazia and South Ossetia.[170][171]
[edit] Occupation of Poti
On August 14, Russian troops entered Poti and sunk several Georgian naval vessels moored in the harbor, as well as removing or destroying military equipment.[172][173] They also controlled the highway linking Poti to Tbilisi.[174] Four days later, Russian forces in Poti took prisoner 22 Georgian troops who had approached the city. They were taken to a Georgian military base occupied by Russian troops at Senaki.[175]
[edit] Six-point peace plan
On August 10, most international observers began calling for a peaceful solution to the conflict.[176] The European Union and the United States expressed a willingness to send a joint delegation to try and negotiate a ceasefire.[177] Russia, however, ruled out peace talks with Georgia until the latter withdrew from South Ossetia and signed a legally binding pact renouncing the use of force against South Ossetia and Abkhazia.[178]
On August 12, Russian President Medvedev said that he had ordered an end to military operations in Georgia, saying that "the operation has achieved its goal, security for peacekeepers and civilians has been restored. The aggressor was punished, suffering huge losses."[179][180] Later on the same day, he met the President-in-Office of the European Union, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and approved a six-point peace plan. Late that night Georgian President Saakashvili agreed to the text.[181] Sarkozy's plan originally had just the first four points. Russia added the fifth and sixth points. Georgia asked for the additions in parentheses, but Russia rejected them, and Sarkozy convinced Georgia to agree to the unchanged text.[182] On August 14, South Ossetia President Eduard Kokoity and Abkhazia President Sergei Bagapsh signed the peace plan as well.[183]
- No recourse to the use of force.
- Definitive cessation of hostilities.
- Free access to humanitarian aid (addition rejected: and to allow the return of refugees).
- The Armed Forces of Georgia must withdraw to their permanent positions.
- The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation must withdraw to the line where they were stationed prior to the beginning of hostilities. Prior to the establishment of international mechanisms the Russian peacekeeping forces will take additional security measures. (addition rejected: six months)
- An international debate on the future status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and ways to ensure their lasting security will take place. (addition rejected: based on the decisions of the UN and the OSCE).[184][182][185]
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe has 200 personnel in the area, of which nine are military observers. OSCE is preparing to send 100 more observers to monitor the ceasefire, of which 20 are to be deployed immediately.[186][187] On 18 August, Russia also initially opposed the deployment of 100 new observers into the region,[188] but later accepted them.[189]
After the cease fire had been signed, hostilities did not immediately stop. A reporter for the UK The Guardian was quoted on the 13th of August saying "the idea there is a ceasefire is ridiculous" while Russian troops and irregulars advanced.[48] On August 14, efforts to institute joint patrols of Georgian and Russian police in Gori broke down due to apparent discord among personnel.[190][191][192] Reuters stated on August 15, that Russian forces had pushed to 34 miles (55 km) from Tbilisi, the closest during the war; they stopped in Igoeti , an important crossroads. According to the report, 17 APCs and 200 soldiers, including snipers, participated in the advance; the convoy included a military ambulance, and initially three helicopters provided covering fire.[193] That day, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also traveled to Tbilisi, where Saakashvili signed the 6-point peace plan in her presence.[194][195] Russian and Georgian forces exchanged prisoners of war on August 19. Georgia said it handed over 5 Russian servicemen, in exchange for 15 Georgians, including two civilians.[196]
[edit] Russian withdrawal
Despite numerous calls for a quick withdrawal from Georgia by western leaders[197], Russian troops occupied some parts of Georgia proper for about two months. In late August, some troops were withdrawn, however Russian troops and checkpoints remained near Gori and Poti, as well as in so called "buffer zones" around Abkhazia and South Ossetia.[198] Withdrawal from the buffer zones around South Ossetia and Abkhazia was completed when control was handed over to EU observer mission on 9 October.[199] On 9th September, 2008, Russia officially announced that its troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia would thenceforth be considered foreign troops stationed in "independent states" under bilateral agreements. Russia maintains 3,700 soldiers in both South Ossetia and Abkhazia and is planning to open military bases in Java, Tskhinvali, and Gudauta in 2010.[200][201][202][197][203] Russia is planning to spend $400 million on the bases.[204]
A number of incidents have occurred in both the border conflict zones since the war ended.
[edit] Post-conflict incidents
Following the end of the war there were still several clashes in the coming months. During September, October and November, 31 people were killed in continuing cross-border fighting.[205][205][205][205][206][207][208][209][210][211] The dead included:
Russia: seven soldiers;
Georgia: eight policemen, two soldiers and two civilians;
South Ossetia: seven civilians;
Abkhazia: four civilians and one border guard.
The worst incident was on October 3, when a car-bomb exploded in Tskhinvali, near the Russian peacekeeping headquarters, killing 13 people and wounding another eight.[212] The Russians and South Ossetians accused the Georgian Security Ministry of being behind the attack, the Georgians denied it and further accused the Russians of orchestrating the attack so they would have enough of a reason to maintain their military presence in Georgia. Among the dead was also the Russian chief of staff of peacekeeping operations.[213][214] Also, one of the Georgian civilians that were killed was the mayor of the Georgian town of Muzhava, Gia Mebonia.
In addition on August 29, two soldiers serving with the Russian North Ossetian peacekeeping battalion were arrested by Georgian police in the border zone for "illegaly detention" of 4 journalists and three other people, including a 13-year-old boy. They were sentenced to pre-trial custody for two months by a court in Mtskheta, a town close to Tbilisi, on August 30, creating a diplomatic row between Tbilisi and Moscow.[215]
[edit] Humanitarian impact
- See also: Humanitarian impact of the 2008 South Ossetia war and Humanitarian response to the 2008 South Ossetia war
According to an 18 August report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), at the start of the military conflict on 7 August 2008, Georgian military used indiscriminate and disproportionate force resulting in civilian deaths in South Ossetia. The Russian military has since used indiscriminate force in attacks in South Ossetia and in the Gori district, and has apparently targeted convoys of civilians attempting to flee the conflict zones. HRW said that ongoing looting, arson attacks, and abductions by Russian soldiers and South Ossetian militia are terrorizing the Georgian civilian population, forcing them to flee their homes and preventing displaced people from returning home.[216]
The organisation called the conflict a disaster for civilians, and said an international security mission should be deployed to help protect civilians and create a safe environment for the displaced to return home. HRW also called for international organisations to send fact-finding missions to establish the facts, report on human rights, and urge the authorities to account for any crimes.[216]
In November 2008, Amnesty International released a 69 page report citing both Georgia and Russia of serious international law violations on the conduct of war.[217][218] [219]
[edit] Infrastructure damage
Georgia claimed Russia had bombed airfields and civil and economic infrastructure, including the Black Sea port of Poti. Between eight and eleven Russian jets reportedly hit container tanks and a shipbuilding plant at the port.[221][222]
UN UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT) provided imagery that witnesses a total of 6 Georgian naval vessels either 'partially or completely submerged' in Poti. 'No other damage to physical infrastructure or vessel-related oil spills' were detected.[223]
Reuters reported that Georgian interior ministry officials claimed an attack on the civilian