Confusion Reigns in the Caucasus

Aug. 14, 2008— -- The cease-fire between Russia and Georgia remains tenuous and confusing today, in and around several key towns inside the former Soviet Republic.

This evening, Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili once again accused Russian troops of carrying out ethnic cleansing in his country, claiming that he had proof to back up his assertions.

"It's so clear to me -- it's a diplomatic blackmail and military blackmail," he said, to "bring Georgia to its knees."

Speaking before reporters in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, the president said that Russian tanks were moving further into Georgia toward Kutaisi, Georgia's second-largest city.

It was a sharp turnaround from the mood this morning, when the Georgian Foreign Ministry announced that the Russian army was in the process of handing over control of the flashpoint town of Gori to Georgian police.

Interfax, Russia's official news agency, quoted a Defense Ministry official as saying that for the next two days, Russian troops and Georgian police would jointly control the town of Gori.

But ABC News Correspondent Clarissa Ward, near the town of Gori, said Russian troops were clearly still in charge this morning. Explosions and gunfire could be heard on the outskirts of the town. The source of the fighting could not be determined, and Russian tanks blocked anyone trying to approach the area, Ward said.

Ward added that there have been more reports of carjacking and looting again today in Gori. And some people, mostly elderly, could still be seen leaving the city.

When Ward asked one of the Russians soldiers at a checkpoint how long they were going to stay there, one answered sarcastically, "A year." "Why are you filming us?" said another. "There's nothing to see."

Other TV footage shot today outside Gori shows what appears to be Russian and Ossetian soldiers chasing reporters away at gunpoint. Some of the reporters' cars and cameras were confiscated. One soldier can be heard yelling in Russian, "Give me your camera you jerk, I'll kill you."

A Georgian journalist was wounded while broadcasting live on the road outside Gori.

Russia maintains that its troop activity within Georgia is now to stabilize the situation and fulfill their duty as peacekeepers. The six-part peace plan drawn up by French President Nicolas Sarkozy states "that Russian troops must return to the lines they held before the start of the military operation but before an international solution is worked out Russian peacekeepers are to take up an additional security role."

In Washington today, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said he does not foresee the need for U.S. military involvement beyond the current humanitarian role.

"I don't see any prospect for the use of military force by the United States in this situation," Gates said, but added that there do need to be consequences for Russian actions. U.S.-Russian relations could suffer for "years to come" if Moscow does not pull back, he said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to depart France on Friday for Tblisi, to "rally the world in defense of a free Georgia."

The White House said today that President Bush, who delayed the start of his vacation in Texas to monitor the Georgian situation, would leave for his ranch Friday morning. Rice will later fly to Crawford and brief Bush on her trip to France and Tiblisi.

The fierce verbal exchanges Wednesday between the U.S., Russia and Georgia continued today.

"One can forget about any talk about Georgia's territorial integrity," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters. "I believe it is impossible to persuade South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree with the logic that they can be forced back into the Georgian state."

The fighting erupted following an Aug. 7 attack by Georgian troops on South Ossetia, a pro-Russian enclave.

Today in Washington, White House press secretary Dana Perino responded to Lavrov. "Our position on Georgia's territorial integrity is not going to change no matter what anyone says. And so I would consider that to be bluster coming from the Foreign Minister of Russia and we'll ignore it."

In an impassioned op-ed piece in today's Washington Post, Saakashvili appealed again for immediate Western intervention. "The Russian leadership cannot be trusted -- and this hard reality should guide the West's response. Only Western peacekeepers can end the war," he wrote.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met today with leaders from South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and told reporters later, "Russia's position is unchanged. We will support any decisions taken by the peoples of South Ossetia and Abkhazia...and not only do we support it but we will guarantee them both in the Caucasus and throughout the world."

Elsewhere in Georgia today, more reports emerged of the Russian military on the move. Georgian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nato Chikovani said Russian troops had moved into the Black Sea oil port city of Poti, which they had appeared to leave earlier. They were also in evidence in the inland town of Zugdidi.

"The Russian troops are here. They are occupying," Ygor Gegenava, an elderly Zugdidi resident, told an Associated Press Television crew.

"We don't want them here. What we need are friendship and good relations with the Russian people."

Meanwhile the second plane of U.S. aid arrived today in Tblisi, carrying cots, blankets and medicine for the refugees displaced by fighting. The U.N. estimates that more than 100,000 people have fled their homes, and many continue to arrive in the capital.

ABC News visited a makeshift refugee center, housed in the former Communist regime's Foreign Ministry building in Tblisi.

"Most of the people there are looking after themselves and sharing what they can find," ABC News producer Angus Hines reports. "There was no one in charge bar a few young Georgian soldiers. There doesn't appear to be any organization by NGOs or the government."

One Georgian woman ABC News spoke to who had fled her village in South Ossetia said that she didn't understand why the Russians had bombed them. "Why are they doing this?" she said. "If they don't like our government, why are we guilty? They can shoot with guns, but why do they use air strikes? Attacks from the air aren't accurate, they kill everyone."