Russia Withdraws, Georgia Prepares for Refugee Flood

As Russian forces withdraw, finally, behind the buffer zone back into South Ossetia, Georgia prepares for a new crisis: the influx of thousands of refugees who had fled the area during the conflict returning to try and rebuild their lives after leaving.

Despite skepticism and in spite of still maintaining a presence in several key Georgian locations, Russian forces have finally begun to withdraw into territory in South Ossetia, as they said they would do by yesterday. This creates a new situation for Georgian authorities, that of masses of people displaced by fighting who now wish to return to their homes and attempt to resume their lives.

Georgia has deployed a “massive police presence” in and around the city of Gori to help guarantee security for returning residents in the wake of the Russian withdrawal on Friday evening, said Shota Utiashvili, a high-ranking Interior Ministry official.

At dusk on Friday, columns of armored personnel carriers and troop transports ferried most of the Russian forces in Georgia back to Kremlin-defined security zones in Abkhazia, a separatist enclave in Georgia’s west, and South Ossetia, the breakaway region where the war broke out two weeks ago.

On Saturday, Russian armored columns continued to flow over the Inguri River from the Georgian city of Zugdidi into Abkhazia, a local police spokesman said. The Russians have also left the Georgian military base in Senaki, but only after confiscating almost everything of value, including televisions, refrigerators and even toilets, according to local residents who have watched the steady stream of Russian trucks moving in and out of the base for more than a week.

Russian troops still maintain checkpoints and are entrenched in the Georgian cities of Poti, a port city on the Black Sea, and have several locations within Georgian territory along the border area of South Ossetia. Russia's Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian military’s general staff, stated that the Russians would not "sit behind the fence and watch as they drive around in Hummers,” a reference to captured United States Marine Corps captured by Russian forces last week. Georgia and Western allies maintain that the Russians are in violation of earlier agreements and demand a Russian return to their prewar positions. Russia, meanwhile, intends to announce it's recognition of two separatist enclaves, which creates an even more murky diplomatic and political situation in the region.

Currently some 112,000 refugees have been registered by the Georgian government, with estimates being that there are possibly closer to 200,000 in total. Refugees who are moving back into areas still held by Russian forces are cautiously optimistic that the conflict has begun to come to an end. Housing for refugees has not been an easy task to undertake. Many refugees have been forced to seek housing in dilapidated buildings that have been far from capable of handling the large numbers of people flooding into them; in one case, a shelter housing around 1,700 refugees shared a single, rigged up water faucet and two toilets.

As Russia withdraws, even to the point that they have and are withdrawing, the main concern now for the people of the nation of Georgia is certain: for Georgians to return to any semblence of their former lives is going to be a slow, hard process. Especially if they're keeping a watch out for bears wandering the countryside.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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Russia Announces Pullout Date - What, Again?

Russia has announced a "firm" date for withdrawing it's troops from central Georgia back into an area behind a "buffer zone" in South Ossetia. Hasn't the world been assured of a Russian pullout before?

Russia has announced that it will begin withdrawing troops from Georgia back into South Ossetia behind a buffer zone where Georgian forces will not be allowed by late Friday, according to reports coming out of Moscow. The announcement comes from General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the deputy head of Russia's General Staff, who made the announcement at a Moscow news conference, stating that Russia will observe a 1992 peacekeeping agreement between Russia and Georgia. He further stated that Georgia had violated the terms of the agreement by withdrawing their own peacekeepers and sending them toward the regional capital, Tskhinvali, thus negating their right to engage in peacekeeping operations within the region.

Georgian officials say that Russia is the aggressor, and may not be considered a peacekeeper itself. Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili told VOA that the buffer zone around South Ossetia is ill-defined and that Russia is "playing games" with the facts.

Utiashvili says Russian officials show journalists one thing during the day, and return their forces at night. He claims that the number of checkpoints and amount of territory held by Russian forces are not decreasing.

Given the previous announcements of cease-fire orders and troop withdrawals by Moscow, it's a reasonable understanding why Georgian officials are skeptical that Russia will withdraw it's troops at this point. Georgia isn't alone in doubting Russia, as negotiations between Russia and NATO reached a near total breakdown yesterday, with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice harshly criticizing Russia for it's actions in Georgia.

U.S. Secretary of State led the charge against Russia, beginning with sharply-worded statements to journalists on the plane over to Brussels. At the meeting, Rice also spoke of Russia’s increasing aviation presence in near Alaska. “It is not cost free,” Rice commented. “This is a very dangerous game, and perhaps one the Russians might want to reconsider.” Moscow responded to that statement through Deputy Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Nogovitsyn yesterday. “That is a Russian issue,” Nogovitsyn said. “The decision on those flights was made by the supreme commander. Strategic aviation will no longer remain laid up. There is nothing criminal about it. We’ve been flying there for half a year already.”

Sources in Western diplomatic circles say the NATO session was tense. The United States, some of the Scandinavian countries and the vast majority of Eastern European countries were in favor of taking a hard line against Russian actions and quickly providing Georgia with a membership action plan. Western European diplomats, in particular French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, opposed a harsh position. The final statement from the four-hour-long session was a compromise.

For now, the world can only wait, watching to see if Russia will, this time, follow through with it's word to withdraw troops back at least into South Ossetia. From there, the future remains uncertain. One thing that is certain, as the situation in Georgia begins to, hopefully, wind down, Russia has certainly shown exactly how much her current government can be trusted by the rest of the world.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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