Georgia welcomes EU monitors' move into buffer zone

Published on Wednesday 1 October 2008 22:45

MONITORS from the European Union moved into a Russian-controlled buffer zone around Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia yesterday, clearing the way for Russian troops to pull out by 10 October.

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

The Russian military and EU officials had said earlier there was still no agreement on full access to the zones, but yesterday three EU patrols entered at separate locations, passing Russian checkpoints.

Russia's foreign ministry issued a statement saying its troops would complete the hand-over to EU monitors in the buffer zones on 10 October, a pledge repeated by the president, Dmitry Medvedev.

"Russian peacekeepers will be withdrawn from Georgia within the agreed dates," he said in St Petersburg at a meeting with the Spanish prime minister, Jos Luis Rodrguez Zapatero.

The crisis over Georgia, an aspiring Nato member, has damaged Moscow's relations with Europe and the US.

Mr Zapatero raised the prospect of talks resuming on a partnership pact between Russia and the European Union. The talks had been suspended until Russia complied with the ceasefire. "We must make the next step and strike a good treaty," he said.

A reporter travelling with one of the patrols entered the buffer zone in the village of Nabakhtevi, west 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.

Georgia welcomed the monitors' access to the buffer zone. Kakha Lomaia, the secretary of the National Security Council, said: "It is once more confirmation that when the international community is unified and resolute, the Russians are compelled to comply."