PACE Monitor: ‘No Sign of Withdrawal’

Matyas Eorsi, a Hungarian lawmaker from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), who traveled to the town of Gori, said he had not seen signs of the Russian troops’ withdrawal.

Eorsi was in Gori together with an Albanian lawmaker Kastriot Islami – both co-rapporteurs on Georgia in PACE – traveled to Gori on August 20.

He said that “after so many promises by President Medvedev about the withdrawal we saw no signal whatever of withdrawal.”

At least two checkpoints have been removed by the Russian forces from Gori overnight on August 20. However, reports said that Russian forces were digging in at other locations in Georgia. The Georgian officials said that the Russian forces were setting up a checkpoint at the entrance of Gori. The Russian troops also remain in Igoeti, on a halfway between Gori and Tbilisi.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that its correspondent on the ground saw by the noon on August 20 a convoy of Russian military trucks moving towards the Roki Tunnel, which links breakaway South Ossetia with the Russia’s North Ossetian Republic. It, however, also reported that the convoy did not include any armored vehicle.

The White House said on August 20 that there were initial signs of Russian troops’ withdrawal, but the process was not fast enough.

“It is not significant and it needs to increase,” Gordon Johndroe, the White House spokesman told reporters. “Both the size and pace of the withdrawal needs to increase and needs to increase sooner rather than later. I don’t think they need any more additional time.”

Matyas Eorsi also said at a news conference in Tbilisi that he had seen “looted infrastructure” in Gori.

“Gori today is a ghost city. You can hardly see anybody in the streets,” Eorsi said. “We of course do not know who did looting but we know that under international law it is the occupying power, which bears full responsibility for everything that happens in the occupied territory. As a consequence for the looted infrastructure it is the Russian Federation that has to bear all responsibility.”

“Occupation of another country is anything but democratic, anything but obeying human rights and anything but rule of law,” he added.

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