Diplomats Analyze U.S. Response to Georgia Conflict

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• NICK PATON WALSH:

  Gori this morning. Georgia's supposed to be at peace with Russia, so we headed through the town towards South Ossetia for as far as we could.

  Locals said houses nearby were under attack, burning. And we could see another plume of smoke further away once we pulled back. And more followed. For the second day in a row, Gori burned.

  At the military hospital, evacuated days ago, the Red Cross arrived to see if they could rescue wounded villagers stranded outside the town.

• AID WORKER (through translator):

  This is a — apparently, this is a difficult place today, so we are working here. We are working according to our mandate, trying to help the wounded, trying to help the vulnerable population. This is as much as I can say.

• NICK PATON WALSH:

  You've been getting telephone calls, yes, today?

  MARIA POTSVERASHVILI, emergency doctor: Yes, they say that we have wounded, wounded, and our (inaudible) go there, but they don't allow go in village, and they come back. And we can't evacuate from there our wounded.

• NICK PATON WALSH:

  Prayer and panic. They asked us what was happening in town, terrified by rumors of Russian tanks there. We told them we hadn't seen any and we headed out of town. In the distance, a column of armor.

  We get closer and see the grimy faces, not of Georgian soldiers, but Russians. About 30 vehicles at 1 o'clock this afternoon moving from somewhere deeper inside Georgia into the town of Gori. They drove up a hill near the edge of the town center, an occupying force, quite polite, open, and even cheerful.

  They tell me they've been in Georgia now for three days. They said they've been ordered to build up strength here and send out scouts. They were reasonably relaxed, roaming the Georgian countryside the day after their commander-in-chief had ordered an end to operations.

• RUSSIAN SOLDIER (through translator):

  We got an order to go forward. Where to? We'll see.

• NICK PATON WALSH:

  He said so far they have an order to be on Georgian territory. "If we're here, then it's because we're supposed to be," he told me.

  They seemed calm and sure of their orders. In all of Gori, we didn't see any Georgian troops or police. And we should point out that we also didn't see the Russians open fire at anything or anyone.

  But still, even three hours after we were here, Russia denied they had any troops in Gori at all.

  They just said they came from Grozny from Chechnya 58th unit. And then one of the guys inside, a senior man, offered to get off the truck and not talk anymore.

  Outside town, we saw locals fleeing, all talking of men in uniform, who they said weren't the Russian army proper, looting and burning their villages.

• GEORGIAN CITIZEN:

  "Money quickly," they said. I give him some, and then he hit me with his rifle here. They took everything we had and took us out of the car and took the car away, over there. There was shooting and people screaming.

• NICK PATON WALSH:

  South Ossetian militia gunmen on the rampage in evidence today, exacting a new worrying toll on ordinary Georgians. Reports of summary executions, and this man said he saw a girl kidnapped.

  Russia later admitted it had, quote, "peacekeepers" in the area, destroying Georgian military bases to secure peace, but the men we saw were definitely not Russian peacekeepers. And tonight they're thought to still be in Georgia roaming the fields near Gori.