Chavez accuses Bush of ordering attack on South Ossetia

Chavez accuses Bush of ordering attack on South Ossetia (NSI News Source Info) BUENOS AIRES August 15, 2008 - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez believes that Georgian forces launched their attack on South Ossetia on the orders of the U.S. president, the Union radio station reported Friday. "The leadership of the U.S., which gives orders to Georgian authorities, is to blame for the Caucasus' burning," began Chavez, as quoted by the Venezuelan radio station. "The president of the U.S., the imperialist George Bush, I am absolutely certain was the one who gave the order to Georgian forces to burn towns and villages and to kill innocent people," he said. The conflict began with an attack by Georgian forces on Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway Georgian republic of South Ossetian, on August 8. Russia has said that around 1,600 people died in the Georgian assault. During the subsequent Russian military operation to force Georgian troops out of the de facto independent republic and to reinforce its peacekeepers in the region, Moscow sent some 10,000 servicemen and several hundred armored vehicles into South Ossetia. Washington has supported its ally throughout the crisis, refusing to condemn Tbilisi's attack on South Ossetia and calling Moscow's response "disproportionate." "Russia's actions were fully justified," Chavez said. He also said that the U.S. was seeking to surround a Russia which had "risen from its knees thanks to the firm hand of ex-president Putin, and has again become a world power." He was speaking in Asuncion at the inauguration of the new president of Paraguay, the leftist former bishop Fernando Lugo.