by Maya Topuria
TBILISI, Aug 13 (AFP) - Georgia's parliament overwhelmingly approved a resolution Friday demanding that Russian peacekeepers withdraw from its separatist region of South Ossetia and instead be replaced by international troops.
The non-binding resolution passed in a 117-3 vote on the day that Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania alleged his motorcade had come under fire during a visit to the disputed region.
"It is inadmissible to place peacekeeping duties on a nation whose interests contradict a just resolution to the conflict," the parliamentary resolution said.
"The Russian Federation does not represent peacekeepers or negotiators. It is one of the sides involved in the conflict and is doing everything to keep a dangerous status quo."
The parliament appealed to the international community for help, calling on the Georgian government to "suspend the Russian peacekeepers' mission and to work on a new one with an international presence".
Russia has already dismissed the idea and a top foreign ministry official said Friday that he also saw no need for additional Organization for Security and Cooperation in European (OSCE) observers in the conflict zone.
South Ossetia, which has enjoyed a measure of de facto independence from Tbilisi since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, has demanded either its own state or direct governance from Moscow.
Russia says the presence of its peacekeepers in the terrority is meant to help foster a resolution of the dispute. That claim is regarded as specious by Tbilisi and the issue has recently become a major thorn in Georgian-Russian relations.
The US State Department on Thursday urged both Georgia and Russia to resolve the issue and said that US officials were trying to help negotiate in the dispute.
In the South Ossetia itself, around 500 ethnic Georgian children were evacuated Friday without incident in buses and cars and the speaker of the Georgian parliament, who accompanied them, described the situation in the region as dramatic.
"It is a catastrophic humanitarian situation," speaker Nino Burdzhanadze said after returning to Tbilisi from South Ossetia.
The vote by the parliament in Tbilisi came hours after the nation's prime minister told Georgia's private television that he had been fired upon in South Ossetia.
"They were shooting directly at us," he said. "I see this as Ossetia's response to our peace initiative.
Ossetian officials denied the accusation.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili raised the spectre Thursday of "ethnic cleansing" in the separatist region after fighting there left four soldiers dead and around 40 people injured.
A senior Russian official also sounded an alarm over recent developments in South Ossetia and called for an emergency meeting of a Georgian-Ossetian-Russian commission charged with resolving the dispute.
On Friday, Saakashvili said he had "no special illusions" about the prospects of peace talks on Ossetia.
"However we are ready to take part seriously in negotiations," he added. "We are ready to sign any realistic agreement."