EU monitors begin patrols in Georgia

KARALETI, Georgia -- Burned houses dot this village in a buffer zone separating the Russian-backed breakaway region of South Ossetia from territory controlled by Georgia. The torched homes formed a backdrop for Wednesday's arrival of European monitors, who residents hope will protect them from further violence.

Villager Zaira Mamagulashvili, 62, said marauders had looted the local store, then blasted it with hand grenades. They also torched 34 of some 300 houses in the village.

The European Union monitors began patrolling Georgian territory more than a month after Georgia's war with Russia, and the foreigners were welcomed by Georgian residents.

The deployment of the observers paves the way for a promised pullback of the remaining Russian troops from areas they occupied outside South Ossetia and another separatist region in Georgia.

Vitaly Shavishishvili and his relatives are living in a cowshed after looters burned their two-story house and stole two of their vehicles, the 24-year-old said.

"We only count on ourselves," he said.

In a strip of land Russian officials have called a "security zone," frightened residents said security has been sorely lacking since the early August war between Russia and Georgia erupted in nearby South Ossetia.

Shavishishvili's grandmother Lamara Tedliashvili, 65, said the family had "no complaints against the Russian soldiers" who nominally control the area. But she said ethnic Ossetians and others burned houses and looted the village.

"No one is in control," said resident Misha Sukhitashvili. "We are afraid of everyone."

Russian forces quickly repelled a Georgian offensive on South Ossetia's capital and drove deep into Georgia. After partial pullbacks, they remain in control of swaths of territory surrounding South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another separatist province that Moscow recognized as an independent nation after the war.

Under cease-fire agreements brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, unarmed EU monitors in white shirts and bright blue berets arrived on schedule and began patrolling the zone outside South Ossetia. Russian troops are to withdraw from both zones within 10 days.

Not a moment too soon, said Karaleti resident Georgy Shamagulashvili.

"EU monitors visited our village. We hope they will help provide security," he said. "We still have hopes that things will change for the better. We need authorities to help us restore our houses that were destroyed, we want them to help us sell our crops."

The EU observers will monitor the cease-fire and the Russian withdrawal. Some frightened residents say the EU came too late.

Russian troops had said Tuesday that none of the EU observers would immediately be permitted in the buffer zone outside South Ossetia, raising concerns that Moscow was backtracking on its commitments. But EU monitors were quickly allowed to pass through Russian checkpoints near two Georgian villages on the perimeter of the so-called security zone.

"The situation is very calm," said Ivan Kukushkin, a Russian officer in charge of the checkpoint near the Georgian village of Kvenatkotsa.

Russia still plans to keep around 7,600 troops in the two breakaway regions, which the EU and U.S. consider violations of its cease-fire commitments. Moscow has refused to allow the EU monitors in the regions themselves.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said there are no ideological grounds for a new Cold War or any other kind of conflict with the United States, a staunch supporter of Georgia's pro-Western government.

"We do not have such ideological differences around which a new cold or any other kind of war could start," Medvedev said at a news conference after meeting Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero outside St. Petersburg, Russia.

There was no evidence of an imminent Russian withdrawal.

"The Russians gave us plans for dismantling their (checkpoints) but didn't say when," EU mission director Hansjoerg Haber told reporters.

At the Russian checkpoint near Kvenatkotsa, an armored personnel carrier was parked up the hill near camouflaged tents and there was no sign of any preparations for a Russian troop pullback.

Medvedev vowed to abide by Russian commitments.

"Russian peacekeepers will be completely withdrawn from Georgian territory within the established time frame, as determined in the agreement," Medvedev said.

He clearly did not mean Russia would withdraw from South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which it has recognized as independent and no longer considers part of Georgia.

In France, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana's spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said the deployment was going smoothly and that the monitors have been able to go "wherever they planned to go."

The 200 monitors and dozens of support staff are not based inside the security zones but in four semi-permanent locations on Georgian-controlled territory, including the central city of Gori near South Ossetia and the Black Sea port of Poti, key targets of Russian forces.

Haber said 102 monitors were in the field in 14 separate patrols, and they reported no major incidents.

Russia and Georgia agreed to the observer mission as part of an updated cease-fire plan following the war, which ended with Russian and separatist forces in control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Russians also dug in on other territory in Georgia.

The war began Aug. 7 when Georgian troops launched an offensive to regain control of South Ossetia, and Russia sent a large force that quickly routed the Georgian military and pushed deep into the small Caucasus Mountains nation, occupying large swaths.

Georgia says it was provoked. The Kremlin insists military action was needed to repel Georgian aggression -- which it claims was encouraged by the U.S. Moscow also said it needed to protect Russian citizens in the region.

"We did the right thing," Medvedev said in a ceremony in an ornate Kremlin reception room after giving medals to soldiers who fought in the war. "We have shown that Russia can protect its citizens, that all other nations must reckon with it."

The U.S., EU and NATO have urged Russia to revoke its recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and withdraw its troops to their pre-conflict positions, as demanded in the cease-fire. Russia has made clear it will not do so, and the war has badly damaged its deeply troubled relations with the West.

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Associated Press writers Mansur Mirovalev and Misha Dzhindzhikhashvili in Bazaleti and Odisi, Georgia; and Irina Titova in Strelna, Russia, contributed to this report.