Sarkozy leads EU trio to Moscow

 

President Sarkozy (L) brokered a ceasefire between Russia and Georgia French President Nicolas Sarkozy has arrived in Moscow for talks with the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev about the crisis in Georgia. He is joined by the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, and the European Commission head, Jose Manuel Barroso. Mr Sarkozy is expected to discuss his peace plan, although Russia has hinted it may not meet all his demands. Meanwhile, Georgia has gone to the UN's highest court over what it claims are Russian human rights abuses. Judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague are being asked to impose emergency measures to halt what Georgia says is a campaign of ethnic cleansing by Russia in the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. 'Georgian beasts' Russian troops remain in South Ossetia and in a self-declared buffer zone within Georgia after responding with force to Georgian attempts to recapture the separatist region last month. As part of the peace deal brokered then, President Sarkozy wants Russian troops to pull back from Georgia. But Russian troops are dug in with tanks and heavy artillery inside Georgia and show little sign of heeding European demands to withdraw, the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports. As Mr Sarkozy arrived in Moscow, reports from Georgia said Russian troops had turned back a UN convoy. Mr Sarkozy's delegation is also expected to press the Russians on arrangements for a strengthened international effort to monitor developments on the ground. But hopes for EU observers to be deployed in the region appeared to be rejected by Russia on Monday. Hours before Mr Sarkozy's visit, the foreign ministry said it would cause the "superfluous fragmentation" of the international monitoring already provided by the UN and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Our correspondent, reporting from South Ossetia, says that every single Georgian village on the road south from the Russian border now lies in ruins. Homes, shops and schools have been looted and in one village Georgian homes have even been bulldozed. "The Georgians are beasts," one Ossetian woman said. "God forbid they ever come back". Energy supplies Russia says it is honouring the terms of a six-point plan agreed to end the conflict. Georgia wants the UN court to impose measures on Russia However, European nations do not agree. Some European leaders have already warned there can be "no business as usual" with Russia until the peace plan is fully implemented, and the European Union has suspended talks on a new partnership agreement with Moscow. However, with winter approaching, individual European countries continue to consume Russian oil and gas as usual. BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says Russia's recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, and its continuing failure to implement the truce agreement to the letter, will have profound consequences for Russian relations with the EU. It will also make it difficult for President Sarkozy to achieve his goals in Moscow, he says. The French president will travel on to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, to meet President Mikhail Saakashvili, following his talks in Russia. Jurisdiction During three days of hearings at the ICJ, judges will hear accusations from Georgia that Russian forces have been conducting a campaign of murder, forced displacement and denial of humanitarian assistance against Georgians in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. If the court decides it has jurisdiction to hear the case, it can issue an interim protection order to help safeguard civilians. A final outcome on the case could take years. Russia has not responded directly to Georgian claims, but when Georgia began its military action in South Ossetia last month, Moscow accused it of committing crimes against humanity. Russian investigators recently released a list of 311 names of South Ossetians killed during the five-day war with Georgia. Initially, Russian and South Ossetian authorities had estimated at least 1,400 fatalities. The Russian-language list given on the website www.osetinfo.ru details their names, ages and causes of death. The authors note that the list is not final.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7603355.stm