Russia for more observers to Georgia
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called on European governments yesterday to send more observers to Georgia, where fighting broke out this month, a Kremlin statement said.
Moscow "calls for the dispatch of additional OSCE observers to the security zone and setting up an impartial monitoring of the acts of the Georgian government," it said.
The Kremlin statement followed a phone conversation between Medvedev and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown ahead of an emergency European Union summit on Monday that has been called to address the Georgian crisis.
Russia reiterated that it was "in full compliance with the six principles" of a ceasefire deal brokered by France to end five days of fighting between Georgian and Russian forces in breakaway South Ossetia, the statement said.
The West sees the presence of monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe as critical to ensure the success of the ceasefire.
The 56-nation OSCE decided this month to send up to 100 observers to Georgia. At least 10 countries have offered to contribute.
There were eight OSCE unarmed military observers in Georgia before the conflict broke out, serving in a mission set up in 1992.
During the telephone conversation, Medvedev explained to Brown the reasons for his decision to recognise the independence of South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian republic, Abkhazia.
German weekly Der Spiegel separately reported that OSCE observers were blaming Georgia for triggering the crisis in a series of unofficial reports to the German government.
OSCE monitors said Georgia had made extensive preparations for the offensive in South Ossetia on August 7. Tbilisi has claimed that they were provoked by the Russian side.
Russia responded by sending a massive force of tanks, troops, warplanes and naval vessels, before agreeing to the six-point ceasefire brokered by France five days later.
Moscow has pulled back the bulk of its forces and maintains that the troops left behind are serving in a peacekeeping mission. Georgia has labeled them an occupation force.
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