"They will require around 10 days to leave their current positions," ITAR-TASS quoted General Vladimir Boldyrev, commander of Russian ground forces in the region, as saying. AP news agency is reporting that while some tank columns have been rolling northwards home, some Russian forces have dug trenches and built long-term fortifications in key areas of Georgia.
It was not immediately clear how the timetable announced by the general would Russian Foreign Minister says Georgia can "forget territorial integrity" ...
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S.
Korean president calls for new talks ...
Siemens Mulls Plans to Cut 15,000 Jobs ... square with a previous Russian commitment to pull back its forces to behind a buffer zone around South Ossetia by late Friday.
Buffer zone is a serious point of contention Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The Georgian President has rejected the idea of a buffer zone Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has promised that all but 500 Russian troops would be withdrawn from Georgia by then.
Moscow said those remaining troops would be stationed in what it termed as "zone of responsibility" as part of a peacekeeping operation to protect South Ossetia. This would leave Russian troops present inside the Georgian heartland and close to its economically vital east-west highway. Boldryev made no reference those 500 troops in his remarks.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has said he would not stand for their presence. "There will be no buffer zones. We will never live with any buffer zones. We'll never allow anything like this," he told Reuters news agency in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.
OSCE observers due Monday Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Refugee camp for Georgians from South Ossetia and Gori Meanwhile, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has announced that twenty of its observers will be ready to start monitoring a ceasefire between Georgia and Russia from Monday.
"By Monday most of the equipment will be in place -- especially the armored vehicles -- we will have our staff here, we will have our operational center set up and we can start sending out monitors into various parts in Georgia and neighboring South Ossetia," said Alexander Stubb, the pan-European security organization's chairman.
His comments came while visiting a refugee camp on the outskirts of Tbilisi. He had earlier traveled through Russian-controlled checkpoints to the city of Gori where Russian troops were still present, deep inside Georgia.
Stubb, who is also the Finnish Foreign Minister, said he had witnessed "atrocious sights". "There are Russian Interior Ministry special forces bringing old people from villages, basically emptying the villages on the South Ossetian side and dumping them in Gori," he told Reuters.
(Deutsche Welle)
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