Georgia seeks emergency decision from World Court

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THE HAGUE, Sep 8 (AP) Georgia accused Russia on Monday of a campaign of harassment and persecution in its two separatist regions and called on the International Court of Justice to impose emergency measures to halt killings and forced expulsions.brBut, in a blunt demonstration of who is in charge in the tense zone around South Ossetia, Russian soldiers turned back a United Nations convoy. And the Georgian government said Russia reinforced its positions on the outskirts of the Black Sea port city of Poti over the weekend.brThe World Court case opened a new legal front in the battle between Georgia and Russia for control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and began as French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Moscow with a European Union delegation for talks aimed at easing the standoff.brBut Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said Monday just before the EU delegation sat down for talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that Moscow was against an autonomous EU monitoring mission.brHe said such a force would lead to unnecessary fragmentation of international monitoring efforts by the U.N. and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.brSarkozy warned, however, that the EU is united in its stance, saying we will defend our convictions forcefully.brWe want peace, we want confidence, we want good-neighborly relations, he said.brGeorgia accuses Russian forces, local militias and mercenaries of conducting a campaign of murder, forced displacement and attacks on towns and villages that started in the early 1990s and culminated in last month's brief war.brEthnic Georgians are being forced out of their homes by a campaign of harassment and persecution, Tina Burjaliani, Georgia's first Deputy Minister of Justice, told the court.brGeorgia claims the campaign has left thousands of civilians dead and forced more than 300,000 from their homes.brBurjaliani said Tbilisi had filed its case at a time of great distress in its history. A time when hundreds of thousands of its nationals are persecuted and displaced from their homes only because they are Georgians.brBurjaliani accused Russia of trying to undermine Georgia's independence through a policy of divide and conquer ... that has ripped apart its delicate multiethnic culture.