Georgia Retreats, Pleads for Truce; U.S. Condemns Russian Onslaught

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Russian Military Presence Remains in Georgia

Russian forces showed signs of withdrawal in some areas of Georgia, but announced plans to strengthen their presence in others, two weeks after conflict began on Aug. 8.

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On Sunday, Russian aircraft hit the country's major commercial airport outside Tbilisi. Georgian officials said the bombs were intended for fuel supplies but missed them; other analysts suggested the bombs were strays from an attack on a military airfield nearby.

U.S. military aircraft began landing at the commercial airport Sunday, transporting Georgian soldiers that the government ordered home from Iraq. Until the callback, Georgia had the third-largest contingent of troops serving in Iraq, 2,000, after the United States and Britain.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also landed at the airport Sunday evening, as did Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, both as part of a diplomatic push to end the conflict.

France currently holds the presidency of the European Union and is proposing a settlement that includes an immediate end to hostilities, the withdrawal of forces to positions held before the war, the replacement of Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia with an international force, and respect for Georgian sovereignty over South Ossetia. The region seized de facto independence by force of arms in 1992, but internationally it is still recognized as being part of Georgia.

The Russian government questioned whether Georgian forces had really withdrawn and said that Georgia must sign a written pledge not to use force again. Russia has long resisted any attempt to put an international presence on the ground in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

In a formal statement, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev repeated charges of genocide by Georgian troops. "The information we are receiving attests to the fact that crimes of the most serious kind have been committed: people have been murdered, burnt, crushed by tanks, had their throats cut," he said. He added that evidence must be collected to enable "criminal prosecution of their perpetrators."

Vice President Cheney, speaking Sunday with Saakashvili, expressed the United States' "solidarity" with the Georgian people and their elected leaders, Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride said in a statement. Cheney praised the decision to withdraw from the conflict zone and said that Russian aggression must not go unanswered.

But such statements appeared to be having little impact on Russia. In a conversation with Georgia's foreign minister, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov replied, "What bombings?" when asked to halt raids on the military factory in the capital, which was struck twice Sunday, in the morning and evening. The conversation was described by a Georgian source who heard the exchange.

The blast from the second strike on the military factory reverberated across the capital, as did the buzz of bombers. The government evacuated the Defense Ministry on Sunday, fearing it could be hit. Lavrov earlier warned the government here that any facility used to support its military operations could be hit.

In Russia, where public opinion is inflamed against Georgia, state television has aired almost no reports that military action and airstrikes on Georgia proper continue.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who cut short a visit to China to meet with military commanders near the Russian border with Georgia this weekend, appears to be driving Russian policy even though the constitution specifies that the country's new president, Medvedev, is the commander in chief.

Putin has never disguised his disdain for Saakashvili, a U.S.-educated lawyer who wants Georgia to join the NATO alliance and has staked his presidency on close relations with the United States.