By AFP,
Tbilisi : Around 200 European observers assembled here Friday ahead of their deployment near Georgia’s conflict zones to ensure compliance with a plan to stabilise the country rocked by a war last month.
As the observers arrived, both Russia and Georgia urged the EU to take a tough stance with the other party. At a welcoming ceremony at Tbilisi airport for 13 German policemen, the head of the EU mission, German diplomat Hansjoerg Haber, said the team would be ready for deployment ahead of the official deadline Wednesday.
“It is a big challenge. It is a civilian monitoring mission as you know and I think by Tuesday we’ll be able to monitor in the field,” said Haber.
About 70 observers arrived by plane from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Poland, Spain and Sweden while a Romanian group arrived by ship in the Black Sea port of Poti with armoured cars, an official said.
Some 300 EU observers are to be deployed in Georgia under an EU-brokered plan to tackle the consequences of last month’s war between Georgia and Russia, although not all will be in the field at once. Russia has committed to drawing its troops back to their “pre-conflict positions” by October 10 following the start of the mission on October 1.
On Friday the mission’s deputy head, a general of France’s gendarmerie, met Russian military representatives at an undisclosed location to coordinate the EU deployment with the pull-back of Russian troops.
The general, Gilles Janvier, told AFP the meeting had passed off in a “good working atmosphere.” Many of the EU observers have a police or military background. They include a large contingent of French gendarmes, while others are experts in human rights and judicial issues.
The mission’s mandate is controversial: The EU says the monitors should have unfettered access to all of Georgia, which it says includes the rebel regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Moscow says the monitors will not enter the two regions, which Russia has recognised as independent countries and where it plans to retain some 7,600 Russian troops.
Some analysts doubt Russia will withdraw from areas of Abkhazia and South Ossetia that were under Georgian control until last month but fell into rebel hands.
Russia’s foreign ministry unleashed its latest attack on Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who this week urged the world to resist “invading tanks” and “the boots of ethnic cleansers” in a United Nations speech referring to Russia. Accusing Saakashvili of “chronic unreliability,” the Russian ministry advised in a statement: “A realistic view of the Georgian leadership, without rose-tinted spectacles, is the most important pre-condition for the success of our European partners’ mission.”
The secretary of Georgia’s security council said a firm stance was needed that should lead to Russia withdrawing its troops from all of Georgia, including the rebel regions, which Moscow has recognised as independent.
“It all depends on the consistency and firmness of the international community’s position.
So far it’s proved to be the best guarantee for the Russian withdrawal,” the secretary, Alexander Lomaia, told AFP late Thursday. The EU official involved in the mission said about 200 observers would be in Georgia by the end of Friday, while more were due over the weekend.
All observers will be unarmed, although they will have safety equipment including bullet-proof vests and armoured cars painted blue and marked with the EU flag.