Georgia signs cease-fire agreement

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili signed a cease-fire agreement on Friday, which the U.S. said means Russian troops must begin withdrawing.
The office of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who brokered the agreement, said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also had confirmed Russia’s cooperation.
“His country will sign a cease-fire accord with Georgia and scrupulously respect all agreements, including a troop withdrawal,” Sarkozy’s office said.
Rice said international observers followed by neutral peacekeepers should be dispatched quickly to Georgia and its separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, where Russia has a peacekeeping mission.
Saakashvili warned at a news conference with Rice that “this is not a done deal yet” unless it included ways of stopping a repeat.
“We are under Russian occupation,” he said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that President Dmitry Medvedev has agreed to sign the document but added that it was not clear whether it has been amended since Russia made the commitment to sign.
The conflict began late last week, when Georgia launched a military incursion into South Ossetia in an effort to rout separatist rebels.
Russia — which supports the separatists, many of whom claim Russian citizenship — has peacekeeping responsibilities for the region and responded by sending tanks into the province for peace enforcement.
President Bush earlier chided Russia for Cold War-style behavior in its territorial conflict with Georgia, accusing it of “bullying and intimidation” as international pressure grew on Moscow to withdraw its troops from the region.
Medvedev remained defiant over Moscow’s actions, saying Russia had brought peace to the region.
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And it was true. Only with the help of Russia persuading the leader of Georgia to end this cold-hearted elimination of people from the territory of South Osetia which didn’t belong to Georgia after 1991, the war was stopped. What would become if Russia didn’t react in time? It’s frightening to think about…