German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has called for an international probe into the conflict over Georgia's breakaway provinces in an interview published Friday. It was necessary to examine the background of the brief war last month when Russian troops entered South Ossetia and penetrated further into Georgia, Steinmeier told the daily Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung on Friday, Sept. 5. "The question of who bears guilt and responsibility is not the priority when people are suffering, have lost their possessions and are forced to flee," he said. "But I have also said that in a second phase, in which we will define our medium and long-term relations with the conflicting parties, the issue of who bears what part of the responsibility for the escalation to the point of a military conflict will play a role. "This cannot be cleared up overnight and probably never completely," the foreign minister told the newspaper.
It was necessary to examine the background of the brief war last month when Russian troops entered South Ossetia and penetrated further into Georgia, Steinmeier told the daily Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung on Friday, Sept. 5.
"The question of who bears guilt and responsibility is not the priority when people are suffering, have lost their possessions and are forced to flee," he said. "But I have also said that in a second phase, in which we will define our medium and long-term relations with the conflicting parties, the issue of who bears what part of the responsibility for the escalation to the point of a military conflict will play a role.
"This cannot be cleared up overnight and probably never completely," the foreign minister told the newspaper.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she was "very satisfied" with the European Union and United States sending a clear message of disapproval to Russia over the Georgia conflict. The EU and US were achieving "results" in backing Georgia and showing Russia that "we do not accept this type of action," Rice said on Friday, Sept. 5, after meeting her Portuguese counterpart Luis Amado in Lisbon.
The EU and US were achieving "results" in backing Georgia and showing Russia that "we do not accept this type of action," Rice said on Friday, Sept. 5, after meeting her Portuguese counterpart Luis Amado in Lisbon.
Nato's early-warning surveillance system has been plugged into Georgia's air-defence network in the first evidence that the US-led alliance is shoring up the country's shattered military.Alliance officials said that the arrangement enabled Nato radar specialists to be linked up to the Georgian radar systems. "It means Nato can now see what the Georgians are seeing through their radars, effectively allowing the alliance to monitor what is going on over Georgian airspace without having military assets in place," one official said.After the war in Georgia last month and the continuing occupation of parts of the country by Russian troops, the move underlined the intention by Nato to provide assistance to the Georgian military. A Nato official said that the combined air surveillance arrangement had been negotiated before the crisis in Georgia. The technical switch-on, linking radars in Georgia to Nato, happened this week however.
Nato's early-warning surveillance system has been plugged into Georgia's air-defence network in the first evidence that the US-led alliance is shoring up the country's shattered military.
Alliance officials said that the arrangement enabled Nato radar specialists to be linked up to the Georgian radar systems. "It means Nato can now see what the Georgians are seeing through their radars, effectively allowing the alliance to monitor what is going on over Georgian airspace without having military assets in place," one official said.
After the war in Georgia last month and the continuing occupation of parts of the country by Russian troops, the move underlined the intention by Nato to provide assistance to the Georgian military.
A Nato official said that the combined air surveillance arrangement had been negotiated before the crisis in Georgia. The technical switch-on, linking radars in Georgia to Nato, happened this week however.
US military trained Georgian commandos The US military provided combat training to 80 Georgian special forces commandos only months prior to Georgia's army assault in South Ossetia in August. The revelation, based on recruitment documents and interviews with US military trainers obtained by the Financial Times, could add fuel to accusations by Vladimir Putin, Russian prime minister, last month that the US had "orchestrated" the war in the Georgian enclave. The training was provided by senior US soldiers and two military contractors. There is no evidence that the contractors or the Pentagon, which hired them, knew that the commandos they were training were likely be used in the assault on South Ossetia.
The US military provided combat training to 80 Georgian special forces commandos only months prior to Georgia's army assault in South Ossetia in August.
The revelation, based on recruitment documents and interviews with US military trainers obtained by the Financial Times, could add fuel to accusations by Vladimir Putin, Russian prime minister, last month that the US had "orchestrated" the war in the Georgian enclave.
The training was provided by senior US soldiers and two military contractors. There is no evidence that the contractors or the Pentagon, which hired them, knew that the commandos they were training were likely be used in the assault on South Ossetia.
Last Thursday, 28 August, the deputy chief of Russia's General Staff, Colonel General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, held a news conference in Moscow, where he revealed that Russian troops in South Ossetia had found a passport belonging to an American citizen called Michael Lee White. He displayed a copy to assembled journalists, revealing that the passport was issued in Houston in 2001, and that the owner was a resident of Texas born in 1967. [...] At the time the Russians say he was accompanying Georgian special forces, his family insist that White was in Texas for six weeks caring for his elderly father, and that they can prove it.
US military assistance doesn't start wars.
Ahem. A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith
A US navy flagship has steamed into a Georgian port where Russian troops are still stationed, stoking tensions once again in the tinderbox Caucasus region. A previous trip by American warships was cancelled at the last minute a week ago amid fears that an armed stand off could erupt in the Black Sea port of Poti. The arrival of the USS Mount Whitney came as Moscow accused Dick Cheney, the hawkish US vice-president, of stoking tensions during a visit to Tbilisi yesterday, in which he vowed to bring Georgia into the Nato alliance. Russia sees any such move as a blatant Western encroachment on its traditional sphere of influence. Russia's leadership has already questioned whether previous US warships that docked at the port of Batumi, to the south, were delivering weapons to rearm the smashed Georgian military, something Washington has denied.
A US navy flagship has steamed into a Georgian port where Russian troops are still stationed, stoking tensions once again in the tinderbox Caucasus region.
A previous trip by American warships was cancelled at the last minute a week ago amid fears that an armed stand off could erupt in the Black Sea port of Poti.
The arrival of the USS Mount Whitney came as Moscow accused Dick Cheney, the hawkish US vice-president, of stoking tensions during a visit to Tbilisi yesterday, in which he vowed to bring Georgia into the Nato alliance. Russia sees any such move as a blatant Western encroachment on its traditional sphere of influence.
Russia's leadership has already questioned whether previous US warships that docked at the port of Batumi, to the south, were delivering weapons to rearm the smashed Georgian military, something Washington has denied.
