EU to launch Georgia peace mission
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
TBILISI, Sept 29 (AFP): The European Union on Wednesday launches a monitoring mission in Georgia intended to reduce tensions after an August war and oversee a Russian troop pull-back in this former Soviet Caucasus state.
The mission comprising at least 200 people with policing, military, judicial and human rights expertise aims to stabilise and ensure compliance by Georgia and Russia with an EU-brokered peace plan after their conflict last month, the EU said.
"It is a mission that is going to be difficult, the success of which is not absolutely certain," the head of the mission, German diplomat Hansjoerg Haber, told observers on Saturday, stressing however the need to make a "difference".
"The civilian presence will create stability and normality," he told AFP.
Months of tensions erupted into full-scale hostilities between Georgia and Russia in early August over the Moscow-backed rebel region of South Ossetia, with Moscow saying it was protecting Russian citizens and Georgia accusing Moscow of naked aggression and "ethnic cleansing".
Analysts have questioned the EU mission's prospects as Russia has refused to agree to the EU monitors entering the two Georgian rebel regions that Moscow recognised as independent after the war: South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Sceptics also doubt Russia will fully draw back its troops to the "pre-conflict positions" they held inside the rebel regions before August's military thrust.
Under the peace plan brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on behalf of the EU, Russia is due to draw back its troops from "buffer zones" around the rebel regions into the regions themselves by October 10.
The mission's deputy head, a general of France's gendarmerie, Gilles Janvier, has held talks with Russia's military to coordinate the EU deployment with the Russian pull- back and return of Georgian police.
"The observers will observe the retreat of Russian forces and will be in permanent contact with the Georgian police," an EU diplomat close to the mission said.
Touted by the EU as the most rapid deployment of its kind by the bloc, the mission draws personnel from 22 EU countries. All will be unarmed, although they will have protective equipment including armoured cars.
Up to 340 monitors are expected, the largest number coming from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania and Sweden.
While the August war lasted just a few days, tensions have remained high, reflected in the shooting of several Georgian policemen allegedly by rebel snipers.
A car bomb in the Abkhaz rebel capital Sukhumi on Thursday caused extensive damage but no injuries and was blamed by the separatists on Georgia, prompting a denial by Tbilisi.
Georgia's pro-Western leadership has voiced concern that trouble around the buffer zones is intended to disrupt the Russian pull-back.
And it has stressed the pull-back must lead to a further Russian troop departure from all of Georgian territory, something Moscow dismisses, having committed to keeping 7,600 troops in the rebel regions.
"The withdrawal has to be fulfilled from the whole territory of our country," the secretary of Georgia's security council, Alexander Lomaia, told AFP on Saturday.
"They (Russian forces) have no legal basis whatsoever to stay in any part of this country," he said.
According to Georgia's interior ministry, 800 Russian soldiers are spread across 18 military posts in the buffer zones around the rebel territories.
Analyst Lawrence Sheets of the International Crisis Group said he doubted the EU would make much difference in the rebel regions themselves, which since Moscow's recognition have moved to solidify their borders.
"I wonder if they (the monitors) will have any impact on the actual conflict zone in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The net result may be rather limited... Russia has moved the goalposts by creating these buffer zones," Sheets said.
The mission comprising at least 200 people with policing, military, judicial and human rights expertise aims to stabilise and ensure compliance by Georgia and Russia with an EU-brokered peace plan after their conflict last month, the EU said.
"It is a mission that is going to be difficult, the success of which is not absolutely certain," the head of the mission, German diplomat Hansjoerg Haber, told observers on Saturday, stressing however the need to make a "difference".
"The civilian presence will create stability and normality," he told AFP.
Months of tensions erupted into full-scale hostilities between Georgia and Russia in early August over the Moscow-backed rebel region of South Ossetia, with Moscow saying it was protecting Russian citizens and Georgia accusing Moscow of naked aggression and "ethnic cleansing".
Analysts have questioned the EU mission's prospects as Russia has refused to agree to the EU monitors entering the two Georgian rebel regions that Moscow recognised as independent after the war: South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Sceptics also doubt Russia will fully draw back its troops to the "pre-conflict positions" they held inside the rebel regions before August's military thrust.
Under the peace plan brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on behalf of the EU, Russia is due to draw back its troops from "buffer zones" around the rebel regions into the regions themselves by October 10.
The mission's deputy head, a general of France's gendarmerie, Gilles Janvier, has held talks with Russia's military to coordinate the EU deployment with the Russian pull- back and return of Georgian police.
"The observers will observe the retreat of Russian forces and will be in permanent contact with the Georgian police," an EU diplomat close to the mission said.
Touted by the EU as the most rapid deployment of its kind by the bloc, the mission draws personnel from 22 EU countries. All will be unarmed, although they will have protective equipment including armoured cars.
Up to 340 monitors are expected, the largest number coming from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania and Sweden.
While the August war lasted just a few days, tensions have remained high, reflected in the shooting of several Georgian policemen allegedly by rebel snipers.
A car bomb in the Abkhaz rebel capital Sukhumi on Thursday caused extensive damage but no injuries and was blamed by the separatists on Georgia, prompting a denial by Tbilisi.
Georgia's pro-Western leadership has voiced concern that trouble around the buffer zones is intended to disrupt the Russian pull-back.
And it has stressed the pull-back must lead to a further Russian troop departure from all of Georgian territory, something Moscow dismisses, having committed to keeping 7,600 troops in the rebel regions.
"The withdrawal has to be fulfilled from the whole territory of our country," the secretary of Georgia's security council, Alexander Lomaia, told AFP on Saturday.
"They (Russian forces) have no legal basis whatsoever to stay in any part of this country," he said.
According to Georgia's interior ministry, 800 Russian soldiers are spread across 18 military posts in the buffer zones around the rebel territories.
Analyst Lawrence Sheets of the International Crisis Group said he doubted the EU would make much difference in the rebel regions themselves, which since Moscow's recognition have moved to solidify their borders.
"I wonder if they (the monitors) will have any impact on the actual conflict zone in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The net result may be rather limited... Russia has moved the goalposts by creating these buffer zones," Sheets said.