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France's
Georgia Resolution Is
Dismissed by Russia, Wanting All 6 Points of Agreement In
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, August 19 -- Amid
charges in Georgia of non-compliance with the cease-fire, France on
Tuesday
unveiled a three-paragraph draft resolution which the Russian mission
nearly
immediately dismissed. President Dmitri Medvedev, it was noted, has
said that
any Council resolution should include all six points of the agreement.
But the
French draft contains only a demand to comply with the cease-fire and
for
"the immediate
withdrawal of Russian forces to the lines held prior to the outbreak of
hostilities, and the return of Georgian forces to their usual bases."
Add
to that the reference to "territorial integrity," and the French
draft is a non-starter, sources tell Inner City Press.
As to why the
Russians want all six points in the
resolutions, sources point to negotiations about status -- read, Kosovo
-- and
the ability to stray outside the technical boundaries of South Ossetia
and
Abkhazia.
Ban Ki-moon and Saakashvili: Olympic-sized pool not shown
Western
diplomats were asked, Do you expect it today to go into blue, which
means to
become a final draft that can be voted on within 24 hours. No, was the
answer.
But, for a
briefing from Under Secretary General for Political Affairs by Lynn
Pascoe --
or, "the American," as the Russians have taken to call him -- the
Council moved into the Chamber for an open meeting.
Pascoe, seeming to
many to be running scared,
nevertheless complained that the International Committee of the Red
Cross was
unable to enter South Ossetia from North Ossentia.
Update of 5:03 p.m. -- UK Ambassador Sawers calls Russia an occupying
army, argues that Russia's invocation of Article 51 proves it is a
party to the conflict, and not a peacekeeper...
Update of 5:21 p.m. -- Russian Ambassador Churkin asked if the U.S. is
going to be transporting the 2000 Georgia troops back to Iraq, to
comply with the Moscow Agreement. One wag by the stakeout jokes, maybe
they should be re-directed to Afghanistan...
Watch
this
site. And this (on
South Ossetia), and
this --
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