Georgia Sees Little Sign Of Russian Withdrawal

Georgia sees little sign of Russian withdrawal

By MIKE ECKEL, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 1 minute ago

GORI, Georgia – Russia said its troops and tanks began to withdraw from the conflict zone with Georgia on Monday, but left unclear exactly where they would operate. And in the key Georgian city of Gori, there were no signs of a Russian pullback.

The statement by Russian Col.-Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn came amid uncertainty about whether Russia was fulfilling its side of the cease-fire intended to end the short but intense fighting that reignited Cold War tensions.

Russian tanks roamed the roads around Gori on Monday and Russian troops were restricting access to the city, where shops were shut and people milled around on the central square with its statue of the Soviet dictator and native son Josef Stalin.

The only movement seen by Associated Press reporters was in the opposite direction – toward the Georgian capital, 50 miles away.

Nona Khizanishvili, 44, said she fled Gori a week ago for an outlying village but returned Monday, trying to reach her son in Tbilisi.

“The city is a cold place now. People are fearful,” she said.

A U.S. official said Monday that the Russian military had moved missile launchers into the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

In Moscow, Nogovitsyn told a briefing that “today, according to the peace plan, the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers and reinforcements has begun.” He added that forces were leaving Gori.

In the afternoon, four Russian armored personnel carriers, each carrying about 15 men, rolled from Gori to Igoeti, a crossroads town closer to Tbilisi. They passed a group of Georgian soldiers who sat by the roadside, ignoring the passing vehicles, and moved into the village before turning off onto a side road leading into the hills – no longer headed in the direction of Tbilisi.

Russian troops and tanks have controlled a wide swath of Georgia for days, including the country’s main east-west highway where Gori sits. The Russian presence essentially cuts the small Caucasus Mountain nation in half and threatens pro-Western President Mikhail Saakashvili’s efforts to keep its from falling apart after the war strengthened the Russian-backed separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The RIA-Novosti news agency reported that some Russian military vehicles were heading Monday out of the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali toward Russia. The leader of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity, also asked Russia on Monday to establish a permanent base there, the news agency said.

According to the European Union-brokered peace plan signed by both Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Saakashvili, both sides are to pull forces back to the positions they held before fighting broke out Aug. 7 in South Ossetia.

Nogovitsyn said the Russian troops were pulling back to South Ossetia and a security zone defined by a 1999 agreement of the “joint control commission” that had been nominally in charge of South Ossetia’s status since it split from Georgia in the early 1990s.

Georgian and Russian officials could not immediately clarify the dimensions of the security zone. Nogovitsyn said “troops should not be in the territory of Georgia,” but it was unclear if that excluded patrols.

“I think the Russians will pull out, but will damage Georgia strongly,” Tbilisi resident Givi Sikharulidze said. “Georgia will survive, but Russia has lost its credibility in the eyes of the world.”

Top American officials said Washington would rethink its ties with Moscow after its military drive deep into its much smaller neighbor and called for a swift Russian withdrawal. The United States called an emergency meeting of NATO on Tuesday to discuss the alliance’s worsening relationship with Russia.

“I think there needs to be a strong, unified response to Russia to send the message that this kind of behavior, characteristic of the Soviet period, has no place in the 21st century,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.

But neither Gates nor Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would be specific about what punitive actions the United States or the international community might take.

In Vladikavkaz, near the border with Georgia, Medvedev gave medals to 30 soldiers and servicemen involved in the conflict.

“It has been only 10 days since you faced a cowardly aggression,” he said, standing on a drill square in front of camouflage-clad soldiers and officers he called “heroes.”

“I am sure that such a well-done, effective and peacemaking operation aimed at protecting our citizens and other people will be among the most glorious deeds of the Russian military,” Medvedev said.

While Western leaders have called Russia’s response disproportionate, Medvedev repeated Russian accusations of genocide.

“What Georgian authorities have done is beyond human understanding. It cannot be understood and left unpunished,” he said. “The world realized that even now there are political freaks who were ready to kill innocent people for the sake of political fashions and who compensated for their own stupidity by eliminating a whole nation.”

Rice, who was flying to Europe for talks Tuesday with NATO allies, said Russia can’t use “disproportionate force” against its neighbor and still be welcomed into the halls of international institutions.

“It’s not going to happen that way,” she said. “Russia will pay a price.”

A U.S. official told The Associated Press that the Russian military moved SS-21 missile launchers into South Ossetia on Friday. From there, the missiles would have the capability of reaching Tbilisi.

Nogovitsyn, the Russian military official, disputed the claim, saying Russia “sees no necessity” to place SS-21s in the region.

The war broke out after Georgia tried to retake control of South Ossetia. Russia, which had peacekeeping forces in South Ossetia, sent in thousands of reinforcements and immediately drove out the Georgian forces.

Georgian troops also were forced out of another Russian-backed separatist region, the Black Sea province of Abkhazia.

Russian troops then pressed deep into Georgia and began a campaign to disable the Georgian military, destroying or carting away equipment. An AP photographer saw Russian troops guarding rows of captured Georgian military vehicles Sunday in Tskhinvali.

Bolstered by Western support, Georgia’s leader vowed never to abandon its claim to territory now firmly in the hands of Russia and its separatist allies. His pledge, echoed by Western insistence that Georgia must not be broken apart, portends further tensions over South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Georgia’s government minister for refugees, Koba Subeliani, said there were 140,000 displaced people in Tbilisi and the surrounding area.

U.S. Brig. Gen. Jon Miller arrived in Georgia to assess the need for further humanitarian aid. So far, at least six U.S. military flights carrying aid have arrived in Tbilisi.

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Associated Press writers David Nowak, Jim Heintz, Steve Gutterman in Moscow and Matti Friedman in Tbilisi, Georgia; and Pauline Jelinek in Washington contributed to this report.