Pat Dollard | Young Americans

September 13, 2008

POTI, Georgia (AFP) — Russian troops pulled out of encampments in western Georgia on Saturday as the shooting of a Georgian policeman underlined tensions over the EU-brokered disengagement plan.

At dawn Russian columns could be seen leaving camps near the port of Poti and around the western town of Senaki, abandoning earth embankments and trenches they had dug and heading towards the Abkhazia rebel region.

As a column departed via the town of Zugdidi, sullen residents stood by watching. The Georgian national anthem and a song mocking Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin blared from loudspeakers.

“I’ve come to watch them leave so as to get rid of the fear I have in my stomach,” remarked a wizened pensioner by the road into Abkhazia, Anzor Gabedava. “We’re fed up with them.”

Georgian interior ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said the withdrawal had been mostly orderly but that one Georgian policeman had been killed, most likely by Abkhaz police, on the de facto border with the breakaway region.

The policeman, manning a Georgian checkpoint, came under fire from a nearby Abkhaz post and died shortly afterwards, the spokesman said.

It came three days after an earlier shooting incident when Georgia said another policeman had been fatally shot close to a Russian checkpoint. Russia denied any involvement.

“I can confirm that the five Russian checkpoints on the Poti-Senaki line have been removed,” Utiashvili told AFP. “They’ve gone to Abkhazia.”

The withdrawal was also confirmed on the Russian side.

Under the European Union-backed peace plan all Russian troops were to leave uncontested parts of Georgia — with the exception of South Ossetia and Abkhazia — by the middle of next month.

At least 200 EU military observers were to be deployed first, on terms the two sides still contest.

Russia’s military has had a significant troop presence around the western port of Poti, 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Abkhazia since last month’s conflict broke out over a second rebel region, South Ossetia.

Dozens of Russian soldiers have been monitoring marine traffic in and out of the port, a flashpoint in the conflict. It is home to Georgia’s small navy and Russian forces sank several Georgian vessels there.

Amid a chill in Russian-US relations over the conflict, the United States angered Moscow earlier this month be sending the flagship of its Sixth Fleet to Poti to deliver aid and show support for Washington’s pro-Western ally.

Last month’s Russian military push into Georgia to repel a Georgian attack on South Ossetia has been condemned by Western states, as has Moscow’s subsequent recognition of the two rebel regions as independent.

A NATO delegation led by alliance chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer was to meet on Monday in Georgia to help with the country’s reconstruction needs, despite Russian opposition to the trip.

Russia is deeply opposed to the alliance’s possible further expansion to take in ex-Soviet states such as Georgia and Ukraine.

Saturday’s troop movements were part of a wider plan brokered by the EU with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on September 8 that should see all Russian forces move back into Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

A first phase was the removal of five posts on a line between Poti and Senaki.

However there was uncertainty surrounding the EU observer mission due to be deployed by October 1.

While Russia sees the observers as monitoring areas around Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the EU has said they should have the right to enter the two rebel territories.

The conflict has led to a deep chill in Russian-Western relations, already strained over US missile defence plans in central Europe.

Russia has insisted it will keep a total of 7,600 troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

At home, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is facing his most significant political challenge since the conflict after a former ally turned opposition leader, Nino Burjanadze, called for “tough questions” to be asked about his handling of the crisis.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday ruled out discussion of Moscow’s recognition of independence for South Ossetia and Abkhazia — or on their status — at international talks set for October 15 in Geneva.

Lavrov is due to visit Abkhazia on Sunday and South Ossetia on Monday.