UNITED NATIONS, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Russian troops barred a U.N. convoy from bringing food aid to the Georgian city of Gori on Monday despite U.N. calls for Moscow to allow aid workers free access across Georgia, the United Nations said. "The mission was not allowed to move beyond a Russian checkpoint in Karaleti," U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas told reporters. "I don't have a specific reaction at this point, but I can confirm that the U.N. will keep trying to send humanitarian missions to the area in question." The U.N. convoy was trying to deliver wheat flour, pasta, sugar and other staples, she said. The village of Karaleti is on the edge of a Russian-controlled buffer zone running some 19 miles (30 km) deep inside Georgian territory around the two breakaway enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has repeatedly called on Moscow to allow humanitarian aid workers access to all parts of Georgia affected by last month's brief war between Russia and its neighbor, a former Soviet republic. Russian troops invaded Georgian territory controlled by the Tbilisi government in August to thwart an attempt by Georgian forces to retake South Ossetia. Although Moscow has agreed to withdraw from Georgia outside Abkhazia and South Ossetia, it still has checkpoints inside the country and insists on keeping the buffer zone. The two rebel enclaves broke away from Tbilisi in the early 1990s. Most of the people who live there have Russian passports, which Moscow issued them in recent years. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
A woman shouts during a protest in front of a Russia checkpoint in the village of Khobi, near Poti, September 8, 2008. Georgia accused Russia of committing human rights violations against ...
