GORI, Georgia: A Georgian police officer was killed yesterday by gunfire that came from the direction of a Russian checkpoint near separatist South Ossetia, a government spokesman said.
It was not immediately clear who opened fire, but the shooting was certain to add to high tensions between Georgia and Russia, whose forces continue to occupy its neighbor’s territory weeks after last month’s five-day war.
The policeman was at a Georgian checkpoint near the central city of Gori about a kilometer from the Russian post, Interior Ministry official Shota Utiashvili said. The Georgians did not return fire and the policeman later died at a hospital, he said.
An official at the headquarters of Russian forces in South Ossetia said Russian troops at the checkpoint at Karaleti, on the main road leading to South Ossetia, did not open fire. The official said he was not authorized to give his name.
Georgian media speculated that Russia’s armed South Ossetian allies might have been the source of the gunfire.
Georgian investigators were at the checkpoint later in the day.
Since the war in early August, Russia has recognized Georgia’s two separatist regions — South Ossetia and Abkhazia — as independent nations and has deployed forces at checkpoints and military positions ringing the two regions.
Under a deal reached by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday, Russia has pledged to withdraw its forces from those zones within a month, after unarmed European Union observers are deployed.
But Russia said it would maintain 7,600 troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia for the foreseeable future.
Russian forces withdrew on Tuesday from one of what Georgian authorities say are 24 Russian positions inside Georgia - an encampment by the Black Sea near Abkhazia. Other signs of Russian troop pullbacks emerged yesterday. Russian forces began to dismantle another post near Abkhazia. Rustavi-2 TV showed footage of Russian soldiers in camouflage taking down a barbed wire from a fence at the post near Khobi and pulling fence posts out of the ground.
Russian forces also appeared to be getting ready to withdraw from two sizable camps on the outskirts of the Black Sea port of Poti, Mayor Vano Saginadze said. Trucks had carried away equipment but some military vehicles and servicemen remained, he said.
The brazen Russian presence in Poti, well south of Abkhazia and outside even the security zones where Russia claimed the right to maintain fixed positions, has been particularly galling for Georgia.
Russia promised Sarkozy that it would withdraw from the Poti positions and three others in western Georgia within a week.
The United States sent the flagship of its Mediterranean fleet to Poti last week to deliver humanitarian aid in a signal of support for Georgia and its US-allied leadership.
Russia suggested the US ships may also have brought weapons to help Georgia rebuild its military.
Ignoring Russia’s ire, the US Defense Department said on Tuesday it was sending an assessment team to Georgia to help determine the country’s «legitimate needs» as a way of showing US support for its security.
Russia has made its withdrawal pledges contingent on guarantees that Georgia will not use force to try to regain control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili had not made such a pledge.
“Instead of him, the EU gave such guarantees,” Lavrov said. “Certainly, we’ll demand our European partners fulfill all obligations.” Saakashvili said on Monday he had assured EU leaders that Georgia would refrain from using force.
