|
Politic / 20.08.2008 17:05 Russian troops to stay in Georgia buffer zone
Under a ceasefire agreement, Russian and Georgian forces are to pull back to positions they held before the fighting in South Ossetia started.
A convoy of flatbed trucks carrying badly needed food aid to beleaguered Georgians rumbled through a Russian checkpoint on Wednesday, waved past by soldiers who showed no signs of moving to fulfil their president's promise of a pullback within two days. The Igoeti checkpoint, about 30 miles west of the capital Tbilisi, is one of the deepest penetrations made by Russian forces into Georgia after fighting broke out in a Russian-backed separatist region nearly two weeks ago. Under a ceasefire agreement, Russian and Georgian forces are to pull back to positions they held before the fighting in South Ossetia started. Russian troops will remain stationed in a buffer zone surrounding Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia as long as Moscow deems it necessary, a senior Russian military official said on Wednesday. "Time will show. It depends on how the political process develops," Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian military's General Staff, told reporters when asked how long Russian forces would stay in the zone. He said Russian peacekeepers also had a mandate to operate in a buffer zone around Abkhazia, a second Moscow-backed breakaway region of Georgia. That zone includes the Georgian town of Senaki, where the Georgian military had a major base, Nogovitsyn said. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said his troops will complete the withdrawal by Friday, but few signs of movement have been seen other than the departure of a small number of the troops who have held the strategic city of Gori, another 25 miles west of Igoeti. The Russian seizure of Gori and villages in the region has left thousands of people with scarce and uncertain food supplies. The nine trucks carrying aid from the World Food Program could bring them some small comfort for a few days. The Russian forces in Georgia appear to be aiming to weaken Georgia's military before the pullout, through detentions and destruction. On Tuesday, Russian forces drove out of the Black Sea port city of Poti in trucks and armoured personnel carriers loaded with about 20 blindfolded and bound Georgian prisoners - identified by local officials as soldiers and police - and seized four US Humvees. They reportedly were taken to a Russian-controlled military base nearby, and Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said on Wednesday that they still were being held. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili claimed Russia was not only flouting its withdrawal commitment but that its forces were "not losing time" in damaging Georgia by destroying infrastructure.
© 2008 All rights reserved. Citing to ANS PRESS is necessary upon using news.
|
