Finnish and French foreign ministers hold talks with Georgian President

Stubb: Georgia accepts cease fire proposal

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Finland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb (Nat. Coalition Party) says that Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili has accepted a proposal for a cease fire with Russian forces, which was put forward by the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the European Union. Stubb, in his capacity of Foreign Minister of the holder of the OSCE Chairmanship, and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner arrived in the Georgian capital Tbilisi late Sunday evening for talks with Georgian leaders on conflict over the border region of South Ossetia.
      Stubb and Kouchner fly to Moscow on Monday, to present the proposed deal to Russian leaders. The two appeared at a press conference held soon after midnight, accompanied by President Saakashvili.
      Stubb said that the international community has three messages: the need for an immediate cease fire, the withdrawal of troops to their earlier positions, and international mediation.
     
In Moscow, Stubb and Kouchner are meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. On Tuesday they are expected to meet Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
      At the press conference, President Saakashvili did not give a direct answer to the question of what hopes he had for the Moscow talks.
      “Everything has always depended on Russia”, he said.
      Saakashvili said that Russian tanks were penetrating deep into Georgia, far beyond the borders of South Ossetia.
      He also accused the Russians of deliberately targeting civilians.
     
Foreign Minister Stubb said that there is no clear proposal on the table for a solution to the crisis. He added that it is clear that Georgia wants a cease fire.
      “Tomorow we will put forward a few points [to Georgia], which we hope that they will accept, and we will take them to Moscow.”
     
Meanwhile, Terhi Hakala, the head of the OSCE mission to Georgia, says that the situation in the conflict area of South Ossetia is very bad. She says that the South Ossetian capital has been completely flattened in bombardments.
      “We are currently trying to get civilians of Georgian regions out of the conflict zone”, Hakala said in a telephone interview in the Georgian capital Tbilisi.
      OSCE representatives tried to negotiate the establishment of a humanitarian corridor to allow the evacuation of ethnic Georgian villages south into the interior of the country. Another humanitarian corridor is to be opened to Russia, in the north.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  NEWS ANALYSIS: Collateral damage from Finnish OSCE Chairmanship (2.6.2008)

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