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Georgia says radar data proves Russia launched missile, seeks U.N. involvement(Associated Press WorldStream Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) TBILISI, Georgia_Georgia said Wednesday that radar data proves that Russian jets violated its airspace and fired a missile. But Russia suggested that Tbilisi was overreacting, and long-simmering tensions between the two nations spiked again. Tbilisi has accused Moscow of trying to destabilize the country and of backing separatists in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two regions that broke away from Georgia during wars in the 1990s. President Mikhail Saakashvili, whose efforts to join the European Union and NATO have irked Moscow, has vowed to return the regions to central government control. Georgia's Foreign Ministry said records from radars compatible with NATO standards showed that a Russian Su-24 jet had flown from Russia into Georgia and launched a missile. The missile, which did not exploded, landed near a house in the Gori region next to South Ossetia. Investigators identified the weapon as a Russian-made Raduga Kh-58 missile, designed to hit radars, the ministry said. The missile, code-named AS-11 by NATO, carried a 140-kilogram warhead (over 300 pounds). Defense Ministry spokesman Georgy Tatishvili said that the Russian aircraft was probably aiming at a Georgian radar station. The Foreign Ministry called the incident "undisguised aggression and a gross violation of sovereignty of the country." It also said the nation has no Su-24 jets or missiles of that type. Georgia demanded that the U.N. Security Council take action. Charge d'Affaires Irakli Chikovani called the incident a violation of the U.N. Charter and said he would seek an emergency meeting of the council. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that its mission in Georgia had confirmed that Georgian airspace was violated, but could not say how many and what kind of aircraft were involved. The mission also said it could not identify the missile. Russia's air force has denied that its planes crossed into Georgia's airspace. Gen. Marat Kulakhmetov, commander of Russian peacekeepers patrolling South Ossetia, said an unidentified aircraft dropped the missile after flying over South Ossetia and coming under fire from the ground. Kulakhmetov suggested the plane came from Georgia. Officials from the separatist government in South Ossetia, which has received backing from Russia, accused Georgia of dropping the missile. Russia's Foreign Ministry suggested that Georgia had concocted the incident Moscow views the event as an "attempt to derail positive trends in Russian-Georgian relations and exacerbate the situation with the settlement of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict." It said Moscow would insist on a swift investigation. Sergei Mironov, the speaker of the upper house of Russia's Parliament, accused Tbilisi of fanning "anti-Russian hysteria" to deflect attention from domestic problems, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. Relations between Russia and Georgia have been strained since Saakashvili was elected president in early 2004 and made clear his intentions to move the former Soviet republic closer to the West. Georgia has accused Russia of backing separatists; Moscow, in turn, has accused Tbilisi of fomenting tensions in the rebel provinces. Georgia has repeatedly accused Russia of violating its airspace _ claims Russia has invariably denied. Earlier this year, Georgia said Russian helicopters fired on its territory in the Kodori Gorge, a volatile area on the fringes of Abkhazia. The two nations exchanged similarly fraught accusations at the time, but a subsequent report by the U.N. observer mission in Georgia last month said it was not clear who had fired at the Georgian territory. Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |