US flagship delivers aid to Georgian port patrolled by Russian troops

GEORGIA:ONE OF the leading warships in the US navy docked yesterday off a Georgian port patrolled by Russian troops, as part of an aid delivery programme that Moscow has called a cover for re-arming Washington's main ally in the strategic Caucasus region.

The USS Mount Whitney, flagship of the US Sixth Fleet, moored off the Black Sea port of Poti and began unloading 17 tonnes of supplies to help victims of last month's clash between Tbilisi and Moscow over Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia. Hundreds died and tens of thousands were displaced in the fighting.

Parts of Poti are patrolled by Russian soldiers who are maintaining controversial "buffer zones" around South Ossetia and another Kremlin-backed separatist region, Abkhazia, which Moscow has recognised as independent states.

The EU has frozen talks on a new partnership deal with Moscow until its forces return to positions held before fighting erupted on August 7th, when Russian troops flooded into South Ossetia to halt a Georgian operation to re-assert control.

In Poti, US naval officials said Russian soldiers would not be allowed to search cargo being unloaded from the Mount Whitney, but insisted it was only humanitarian aid such as food, blankets and medical supplies.

Calling the command vessel the "number one ship of its type in the US navy" and noting that it bristled with communications and reconnaissance technology, Russian foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko cast doubt on the true purpose of its mission.

"Naval ships of that class can hardly deliver a large amount of aid. Such ships of course have a hold for keeping provisions for the crew and items needed for sailing. How many dozens of tonnes of aid can a ship of that type deliver?" he asked.

After previously accusing the US of covertly re-arming Georgia, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev issued another warning to Tbilisi's western allies.

"We don't want Georgia, which was the aggressor, to continue re-arming, especially in an uncontrolled way with incomprehensible purposes and completely unclear consequences," he said.

At a meeting of the so-called Collective Security Treaty Organisation in Moscow, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan backed Moscow's intervention in Georgia - but none of them recognised the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia; only Russia and Nicaragua have done so.