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#42 - JRL 2008-228 - JRL Home
U.S. diplomat accuses Russia of breaking agreements on pulling troops out of Georgia

TBILISI. Dec 16 (Interfax) - U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew Bryza has accused Russia of failing to abide by an agreement on removing its troops from Georgia. Speaking at a news briefing on Tuesday, Bryza said the U.S. hopes Russia would honor its commitments under agreements that were reached in August and September, which it is not doing now.

Bryza said the recent incident in the village of Perevi is a vivid example of Russia grossly violating its commitments, which calls for the need to invest the EU and OSCE monitors with a mandate to monitor the entire territory of Georgia so that no Russian troops could be unlawfully brought into it.

The EU and OSCE monitors are now barred from working in the territories occupied by Russia, he said.

Bryza also insisted that refugees should be given the chance to return home.

The U.S. will continue strategic cooperation with Georgia, including that in the military area, to help it in taking steps toward joining NATO, Bryza said.

The village of Perevi located on the Georgian-South Ossetian border is in fact divided by a road into a community populated by ethnic Georgians and that populated by South Ossetians, one of them administratively belonging to Georgia's Sachkhere district and the other to the Java district of South Ossetia.

The Russian military command said earlier that Russian troops had ousted Georgian commandos from the South Ossetian part of Perevi, where they had been brought on December 12 in violation of the existing agreements.