Moscow calls Georgian president “war criminal,” rejects ceasefire

Both sides in the Russian-Georgian war traded accusations of continuing the fighting and genocide Monday, Aug. 11, the fourth day of the conflict, as the Kremlin rejected the Georgian president’s Mikhail Saakashvili’s ceasefire document before it was delivered by the French and Finnish foreign ministers from Tbilisi.
The Russian ambassador to NATO said it cannot deal with the “war criminal” Georgian president. Saakashvili accused Moscow of seeking “regime change” in Georgia.
Russia confirmed its troops had moved out of breakaway Abhazia to the northwest and invaded the Georgian town of Senaki. Earlier in the day Gen. Sergei Chaban, commander of Russian “peacekeepers” in the breakaway province of Abkhazia, threatened this would happen if Georgia did not disarm and withdraw its troops from the province.
Chaban said that 9,000 additional troops and 350 armored vehicles had arrived in Abkhazia to support Russian “peacekeepers” there, the same tactic which previously brought massive Russian might to the other breakaway province of South Ossetia, where the conflict first flared.
President George Bush has again condemned Russia’s “disproportionate and unacceptable” use of force and called for mediation.