Replies

Here’s statement by deputy secretary of state, Mr. Bryza upon his arrival in Georgia when all this started; very to the point. I did the excerpt myself from recording and tried to make is accurate, but some mistakes are still possible (do not really have time to re-read it):

[] That is why I am here and it is a grave situation and it is something that is deeply troubling most of our senior leaders beginning with President Bush.

I’ve just landed actually and I have been on the plane for many hours and just learned of Kutaisi incident and I would like to make a statement:

I’d like to say that there.. [for] diplomats’ primary tools are words and it is important that all statements be clear and factual and I’d like to address some of the things that Russian government has been saying; we have seen some strange statements, we saw a statement by a Russian military commander lieutenant general saying that Russia has done nothing to escalate the situation; we heard statements that Russian railroads troops that had entered Abkhazia couple of months ago were there on humanitarian mission; and now we know the truth about why those forces were there – it was to rebuild the railroad to allow ammunition and another military supplies to aid Russian invasion. We hear claims from Russian government and we heard them yesterday that there was no blockade of Poti port by Russian navel ships and now we know that Russia sunk a Georgian ship today. We hear amazing statement that what happened in South Ossetia was genocide; that is the most serious accusation that can ever be made against any leadership. And yet we know that unfortunately and tragically for all the people in Tskhinvali who have suffered that shooting was coming from both Russia and Georgia. So why would Russian leaders claimed genocide occurred in Tskhinvali? We know that Russian television is not showing the escalating military attacks and invasion of Russia in Georgia. Is that perhaps because the actions actually being undertaken by Russian forces do not conform with the official words being said by the Kremlin and the Russian government? And finally even when I was watching our own television I’ve see report saying that the Russian military operation was a response to a Georgian offensive against Tskhinvali. But we know that for days South Ossetian so called peacekeepers were firing on Georgian villages from positions behinds the Russian peacekeepers. It is an absolute tragedy that Georgian forces opened fire on Tskhinvali and we extend our absolute and deepest condolences to all the victims there and anywhere in Georgia being them civilian or military. We should keep in mind that the Georgian attack happened after the Georgian government had reports that Russian armored forces had crossed through the Rokki tunnel and had entered Georgia in South Ossetia. And I recall a conversation I was having with a senior Georgian official who said: “we are sorry, we have to lift the ceasefire because we are now under attack. we must defend ourselves, our villages and our people. But even if Russia meant it when it said that its primary motivation for this attack on Georgia was to protect the citizens or residents I should say of South Ossetia who are Russian citizens, it’s impossible to understand how anyone could believe it’s justified to respond with strategic bombers of the territory which is far from South Ossetia. It’s difficult to understand how anyone could find justified if one’s worried what’s happening in South Ossetia an attack on Abkhazia that completely violates several UN Security Council’s [resolutions] and undermines Russia’s ability to participate in UN friends process. And it’s impossible for me to understand how Russia that wants to be seen as a reliable supplier of natural gas to Europe could apparently participate in a series of attacks to blow up the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the South Caucasus gas pipeline. What does that have to do with protecting peacekeepers or Russian passport holders in South Ossetia? I think we received our answer yesterday. I hope I am wrong, but as we know now from the discussion in the UN Security Council the Russian government was advocating the overthrow of the democratically elected president. And now they are using clever language try to say as ambassador Churkin did in New York that we were not calling for regime change - that’s an American invention, we were simply saying that Saakashvili must go. And he said that regime change is an American invention but what happened in Iraq was in conformance with UN Security Council resolutions that for 12 years had called for certain actions to take place. Saddam Hussein was not a leader who transformed his country into the world’s leading economic reformer according to the World Bank. Saddam Hussein never stood for an election in front of anybody apart from a small group of people that owed their existence to him in the security circles. President Saakashvili and his government are democratically elected by the people of Georgia so I am here at the request of my Secretary of State, my President to express our strong support for the people of Georgia who have elected this particular government. I will… We will collaborate with all of the envoys who have been coming through Tbilisi demonstrating strong, unified support of the Euro Atlantic community for this country, for its people, for its democracy. Georgia has offered a ceasefire, it’s offered full military disengagement, it’s time for Russia to accept it and there can be no excuse on Russia’s part for rejecting international mediation. When this brutal attack of one of the world’s most powerful countries against a neighbor that has a mere 4.5 million of people is finished, it will be time to develop a new set of international structures, including multinational, international peacekeepers to restore Georgia’s territorial integrity. And my very last point, I’m sorry, I know you are tired and there is a lot to say. We never encouraged Georgia to engage in military action, in fact we strongly discouraged it. So I’d like to dispel once and for the false, I’ll say, rumors that somehow the United States gave permission for the action to take place. Georgia does not need permission of the United State to do anything. Its government was responding to the people who elected it democratically. We wish this would not have happened and we got to get back on track to restore Georgia’s territorial integrity peacefully and it is time for Russia to stop pressing its attack on Georgia. Thank you.