Russia speeds up Georgia pull-back

Russian forces sped up their pull-back from a buffer zone around Georgia's rebel region of South Ossetia Tuesday ahead of a looming deadline as part of a European-brokered ceasefire.As soldiers were seen packing up and removing equipment, a Russian army spokesman said six posts in the buffer zone would be removed on Wednesday. The Kremlin, meanwhile, said it would hold European Union observers responsible if they failed to prevent "provocations" in the conflict zone.Under an EU-brokered peace plan, Russian forces located in Georgian "buffer zones"since a war in August are due to pull back by Friday to positions they held before the conflict inside two Moscow-backed rebel regions."Tomorrow, in the first half of the day, we will begin an organised withdrawal from six observation posts located on the southern border of the security zone," the Russian army spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, told reporters in South Ossetia."The plan is to complete the withdrawal within 24 hours," he added.A first observation post, located on the edge of the buffer zone around South Ossetia, was dismantled on Sunday and work also began to dismantle other positions.It remained unclear when Russian forces would pull-back from positions in the buffer zone around Georgia's other rebel region, Abkhazia.At least 200 EU observers deployed in the buffer zones last week as part of the ceasefire deal. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's foreign policy adviser said Tuesday the Kremlin would hold the EU responsible for security in the areas."The European Union will be responsible in these zones... for any provocation, for each attack that is not prevented," Russian news agencies quoted the adviser, Sergei Prikhodko, as saying.Medvedev is due to hold talks Wednesday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who brokered the peace deal, on the sidelines of an international policy conference in Evian, France.Several positions in the South Ossetia buffer zone were already on the verge of being dismantled Tuesday.At the Karaleti checkpoint, on a strategic road to the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, a military encampment next to the road had been almost entirely removed and soldiers were busy filling in trenches.At another checkpoint near the village of Kvenatkotsa, a column of trucks was lined up waiting to take soldiers away and a Russian commander confirmed they would be leaving on Wednesday.At a checkpoint near Variani, soldiers had removed fortified positions and concrete blocks across the road."They have been gathering up their things. We can see they're preparing to leave," said local resident Solomon Kakauri, 53."I hope they will go, we're tired of having them here."A Russian commander at a communications post in Nadarbazevi also said his soldiers were gearing up to leave.Highlighting the risks for EU observers, officials said a group of monitors had been detained by armed South Ossetian militia while patrolling near the region's de facto border.A Georgian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a group of about 10 observers were held for nearly an hour on Monday by about 20 armed militiamen. The official said equipment and personal items were confiscated from the observers.A spokesman for the EU mission confirmed the observers "were detained in the zone adjacent to South Ossetia by unidentified persons.""They were released after some time. They observed the rules of conduct and the situation calmed down," said the spokesman, who was not authorised to give his name.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081007170008.mcgxkkcp&show_article=1&lst=1

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