"Am I therefore become your enemy,because I TELL YOU THE TRUTH...?"
(Galatians 4:16)

Russia Sends Troops Into Rebel Enclave in Georgia

MOSCOW-Russia sent troops rolling into a breakaway region of Georgia on Friday after Georgian troops sought to enter the capital of the pro-Russian enclave, in a sharp escalation of the longstanding conflict.Russian Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin declared that “war has started” and President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia accused Russia of a “well-planned invasion," saying he had mobilized Georgia’s military reserves.Georgia is a strong American ally whose shift toward the West and pursuit of NATO membership has angered Russia. Washington said Friday that it would send an envoy to the region to try to broker an end to the fighting.The clashes raised the specter of a wider conflict in the Caucasus region, a key conduit for the flow of oil from the Caspian Sea to world markets and an area where violent conflict has flared for years along Russia’s borders, most recently in Chechnya.Georgian forces said Friday that they had won control of the capital of the rebel enclave, South Ossetia, but Russian peacekeepers in the city said they had not seen Georgian troops in the capital, Tskhinvali. One unconfirmed report said Georgian forces had shot down two Russian planes; Georgia said its aircraft had bombed a convoy of Russian tanks that moved into the area.Russia’s Channel 1 television showed Russian tanks entering South Ossetia. It reported that two battalions reinforced by tanks and armored personnel carriers were approaching the capital.The Russian Defense Ministry said it was sending reinforcements to protect its peacekeepers already on the ground there.Separatist leaders in Tskhinvali said casualties were in the hundreds, though the claim was impossible to verify. Eduard Kokoity, the president of South Ossetia, told the Russian news agency Interfax that hundreds of civilians had been killed.The White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said the Bush administration had been talking to both sides to resolve the crisis.“We urge restraint on all sides — that violence would be curtailed and that direct dialogue could ensue in order to help resolve their differences,” she said.The European Union and NATO also called Friday for Russia and Georgia to end the hostilities.German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a statement calling on both sides to use “the greatest prudence and restraint" and “to halt the use of force immediately."Germany has taken a leading role in trying to ease tensions between Russia and Georgia over the other breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia. Germany’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, traveled to Georgia, Abkhazia and Russia last month with a peace proposal.South Ossetia and Abkhazia gained de facto independence from Georgia in the late 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The region settled into a tenuous peace monitored by Russian peacekeepers, but frictions with Georgia increased sharply in 2004, when Mr. Saakashvili came to power and made national unification a centerpiece of his agenda. Since then an uneasy truce has reigned, with fighting between South Ossetia and Georgian forces erupting sporadically.Earlier this year, Russia announced that it was broadly expanding support for the separatist region.The latest clashes between the Georgian military and separatist forces began last weekend. South Ossetia accused Georgia of firing mortars into the enclave after six Georgian policemen were killed in the border area by a roadside bomb. As tensions grew, South Ossetia began sending women and children out of the enclave.Analysts said that Georgia could be trying to seize an opportune moment-with world leaders focused on the start of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing this week-to reclaim the territory. Russia also may be seeking to draw attention away from another breakaway Georgian region, Abkhazia, where it has been under pressure to allow a settlement between pro-Russian and pro-Georgian factions, analysts said. The refugee crisis appeared to intensify Friday as relief groups said thousands of refugees, mostly women and children, were now streaming across the border into the North Caucasus city of Vladikavkaz in Russia in an attempt to escape the fierce fighting.President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia promised to “punish” those responsible for what he called “a deep violation of international law” by Georgia that he said had led to the deaths of Russian citizens and Russian peacekeepers stationed in Tskhinvali.
By ANNE BARNARD and ANDREW E. KRAMER
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