EU monitors enter Georgian buffer zones

Reuters | 10/02/2008 12:52 AM

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NABAKHTEVI, Georgia - EU monitors moved into a Russian-controlled buffer zone around Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia on Wednesday, clearing the way for a Russian troop pull-back by October 10.

The 200-plus EU monitors began deploying under a French-brokered ceasefire deal that should see Moscow withdraw its troops from two buffer zones occupied in Georgia during a war in August.

The Russian military and EU officials had said earlier there was still no agreement on full access to the zones. But on Wednesday, three EU patrols entered the South Ossetia buffer zone at separate locations, passing Russian checkpoints.

Russia's Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Russian troops would complete the hand-over to EU monitors in the buffer zones on October 10, a commitment repeated by President Dmitry Medvedev.

"Russian peacekeepers will be withdrawn from Georgia within the agreed dates," Medvedev said in Russia's second city of St Petersburg at a meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

A smooth deployment is critical to the success of the peace deal and will test Russia's willingness to stick to its terms. The crisis over Georgia, an aspiring NATO member and key transit state for exports of Caspian Sea oil and gas, has damaged Moscow's relations with Europe and the United States.

The Spanish prime minister raised the prospect of talks resuming on a partnership pact between Russia and the European Union. The 27-member bloc has suspended negotiations on the treaty until Russia complies with the ceasefire.

"We must make the next step and strike a good treaty between the EU and Russia," he said.

A Reuters reporter traveling with one of the patrols, led by French civilian monitors, entered the buffer zone in the village of Nabakhtevi, west of the town of Gori.

After lengthy discussions with Russian commanders, a second patrol entered at Karaleti, in an area where human rights groups say paramilitaries have been looting and attacking ethnic Georgian villages since the war, forcing thousands to flee.

No access to rebel regions

"The process has begun," EU mission head Hansjoerg Haber told reporters at the end of the day. "We are entering the adjacent areas and this is the beginning of the takeover."

Georgia welcomed the monitors' access to the buffer zone.

"It is once more confirmation that when the international community is unified and resolute, the Russians are compelled to comply," said National Security Council Secretary Kakha Lomaia.

Russia has said the EU monitors will not be allowed inside South Ossetia or a second breakaway Georgian region, Abkhazia, both of which it has recognized since the conflict as independent states. Moscow says it can guarantee security in the rebel regions, where it plans to post more than 7,000 troops.

Skirmishes between separatists and Georgian troops erupted in war in August when Georgia's army tried to retake South Ossetia, which threw off Tbilisi's rule in 1991-92.

Russia responded, sending in troops who drove the Georgian army out of Moscow-backed South Ossetia. Its forces then pushed further into Georgia, saying they needed to prevent further Georgian attacks.

The West has condemned Russia for a "disproportionate response" to Georgia's actions and has repeatedly demanded that Moscow pull its troops out of the buffer zones inside Georgia.

In Tbilisi, the Georgian police displayed what they said was a Russian unmanned reconnaissance drone that fell out of the sky on Tuesday just outside South Ossetia. "This is our territory, we control it," said spokesman Shota Utiashvili.

A Russian military spokesman said he could not confirm the Georgian claim, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.