標題:Russia says withdrawal complete
Russia says it has fulfilled a pledge to withdraw its combat troops from
Georgia in line with a ceasefire deal.
The defence ministry said only soldiers manning pre-existing peacekeeping
checkpoints remained in Georgia proper.
However, a Russian general said earlier that 2,000 troops would be stationed
in "buffer zones" around the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
US President George Bush and his French counterpart said Russia had failed to
meet the terms of the ceasefire pact.
Mr Bush and Nicolas Sarkozy agreed in a telephone call that "Russia is not in
compliance and that Russia needs to come into compliance now", a White House
spokesman said.
"[Russians] have without a doubt failed to live up to their obligations.
Establishing checkpoints, buffer zones are definitely not part of the
agreement," US officials said.
The "buffer zones" extend far beyond any pre-existing security zones, and the
BBC's diplomatic correspondent, Jonathan Marcus, says Western diplomats fear
that Moscow is determined to define the parameters of the interim security
arrangements in its own terms.
Our correspondent says that part of the problem is the extraordinary
vagueness of the EU-brokered ceasefire deal, which speaks only of "additional
security measures" in "the immediate proximity of South Ossetia" - proximity
being defined as a distance of "several kilometres".
Georgia has said it will not accept any "annexation" of its land by Russia.
'Snail's pace'
At a briefing in Moscow, the deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, Gen
Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said the withdrawal of all combat troops was going
according to plan.
"The troop pull-back has been started at a rate to make sure that the Russian
troops be within the zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping
contingent by the end of 22 August," he said.
Gen Nogovitsyn said Russian troops were setting up checkpoints on the borders
of South Ossetia and Abkhazia with Georgia.
But the so-called "zone of responsibility" also includes Georgia's main
airbase at Senaki, some 40km (25 miles) from the boundary with Abkhazia,
which sits astride vital road and rail links to the Black Sea port of Poti.
BBC correspondents on the ground say they have seen what appears to be a
significant Russian troop movement out of Georgia.
The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Igoeti - just 35km (21 miles) from the
capital, Tbilisi - lesays he saw Russian troops leave the town, joining a
column of hundreds of armoured vehicles on the road towards South Ossetia.
Our correspondent says buses of Georgian police are arriving in Igoeti to
take control after Russian troops removed their roadblocks and pulled out.
But another correspondent in the nearby town of Korvaleti says Georgian
police vehicles there are still being blocked at checkpoints.
The first of the Russian Black Sea Fleet warships, which have been deployed
off the west coast of Georgia's province of Abkhazia, has returned to its
base at Sevastopol in Ukraine.
Desperate need
Russia's four-day war with Georgia began after Tbilisi tried to retake the
Moscow-backed breakaway province of South Ossetia on 7 August, following days
of clashes with separatists.
The fighting ended with an EU-brokered ceasefire deal, and a promise by
Moscow to pull back the bulk of its forces by 22 August.
The commander of US forces in Europe, Gen John Craddock, said earlier that
Russia was taking too long to withdraw, and added "if they are moving, it is
at a snail's pace".
Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio
Guterres, has arrived in the capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, to assess
the humanitarian situation there.
Thousands of civilians are reported to be in urgent need of relief supplies.
The UN estimates that nearly 160,000 people have been displaced across the
whole of Georgia since the conflict began.
The Georgian government is seeking $1-2bn (￡0.5-1bn) in aid to repair and
develop infrastructure following the conflict with Russia, the head of the US
government aid agency, USAid, said.
The World Bank has also announced that it is sending a team of experts to the
country to assess its reconstruction needs.
'War with Nato'
Diplomatic efforts at the UN have reached deadlock over rival resolutions on
the crisis from France and Russia.
Russia has reiterated its opposition to a rival French text, which reaffirms
Georgia's territorial integrity.
Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili told the BBC he would never accept
what he called Russia's "annexation of its territory".
He warned that Russia's involvement in South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Georgia
was intended to send a strong message to the West, and he called for "a
united response" from Nato.
"It's all about reconsidering the role of Nato, the role of international law
and borders in this part of the world. This is no longer about Georgia
anymore," he said.
"Russia decided to win war with Nato without firing a single shot at it."
A Nato spokeswoman says Russia's defence ministry has decided to halt all
military co-operation with the bloc to protest at what Moscow calls the
alliance's biased, pro-Georgian view of the conflict.
The move by Moscow followed a Nato statement that there would be no "business
as usual" with Moscow unless its troops pulled out of Georgia.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7576556.stm
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