EU monitors enter Georgian buffer zones

EU monitors (who include two from Malta) entered a Russian-controlled buffer zone around Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia for the first time today in what they said was a smooth start to their peacekeeping operation.

The 200-plus EU monitors began deploying under a French-brokered ceasefire deal that should see Moscow pull troops back within 10 days from two buffer zones inside Georgia, occupied during a war between the two countries in August.

The Russian military and EU officials had said earlier there was still no agreement on full access to the zones. But on Wednesday at least two EU patrols entered the South Ossetia buffer zone at separate locations, passing Russian checkpoints.

A Reuters reporter travelling with one of the patrols, led by French civilian monitors, entered the zone in the village of Nabakhtevi, west of the town of Gori. "We're in the buffer zone," one of the monitors confirmed.

A smooth deployment is critical to the success of the peace deal and will test Russia's willingness to stick to its terms. The crisis over Georgia, an aspiring NATO member and key transit state for exports of Caspian Sea oil and gas, has gravely damaged Moscow's relations with Europe and the United States.

After lengthy discussions with Russian commanders, a second patrol entered at Karaleti, in an area where human rights groups say paramilitaries have been looting and attacking ethnic Georgian villages since the war, forcing thousands to flee.

"Patrols made first contact with authorities and (the local) population," an EU spokesman said. "They also passed different Russian checkpoints and entered the so-called adjacent areas."

A spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said: "They have been able to go wherever they planned to go."

The EU mission said it hoped to coordinate a "step-by-step" withdrawal of Russian forces and simultaneous return of Georgian police to the buffer zones to avoid a security vacuum that could be exploited by roaming militias.

Georgia welcomed the EU's entry to the buffer zones.

"It is once more confirmation that when the international community is unified and resolute, the Russians are compelled to comply," said National Security Council Secretary Kakha Lomaia.