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Exiting Russians Keep Hold In Key Georgian Areas

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The New York Times

Published: August 24, 2008

GORI, Georgia - As Russia said its military pullback from Georgia was completed - though it held several key areas - the Georgian government began Saturday to prepare cities and villages in conflict areas for the return of thousands of refugees.

Large columns of Georgian police special forces in and around the city of Gori said they had arrived to provide security for returning residents.

Georgian army units appeared in Gori for the first time since they retreated under heavy Russian bombardment two weeks ago.

The soldiers were lightly equipped. Most had only rifles and pistols, and they traveled in pickups and personal cars when they arrived at a base that had been ransacked.

The commander of the artillery brigade, Maj. Gen. Devi Chankotadze, said in an interview that 170 Georgian soldiers had been killed in the war, and 1,200 wounded.

Two-thirds of the wounded soldiers had returned to duty, he said.

The soldiers' return was made possible when most of the Russian soldiers withdrew Friday evening to Kremlin-defined security zones in Abkhazia, a separatist enclave in Georgia's west, and South Ossetia, the breakaway region in the north where the war broke out two weeks ago.

On Saturday, Russian armored columns continued to pass over the Inguri River from the city of Zugdidi into Abkhazia, a local police spokesman said.

However, Russian forces remain entrenched deep inside Georgia, with checkpoints several miles from Gori close to the South Ossetian border, and two observational posts near the Black Sea port city of Poti, which is outside the Russian-controlled buffer zone.

Georgia and its allies in the West have called the buffer zones a violation of the cease-fire agreement brokered by the European Union, and have called on Russia to pull back to prewar positions.

Russian officials said that peacekeeping agreements that ended fighting in Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the 1990s allow for creation of security zones.

The Kremlin also is preparing to recognize the independence of the two separatist enclaves, further clouding the diplomatic atmosphere.

Many refugees were returning to Gori on Saturday, adding to the 10,000 refugees who had returned as of Friday evening, said Maya Razmadze, a spokeswoman for Georgia's Refugee Ministry.

The Georgian government has registered some 112,000 refugees from the conflict in South Ossetia, though the real number could be reach as high as 200,000, Razmadze said.

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