GORI, Georgia — Though Russian forces still held several key areas of the country, the Georgian government began on Saturday to prepare cities and villages in the conflict areas for the return of thousands of refugees. 
In the Georgian city of Gori on Saturday, a woman stood in her home, damaged from the recent fighting. Russian troops remain in parts of Georgia, despite a cease-fire agreement.
Russia said its military pullback had been completed, and large columns of Georgian police special forces were seen in and around the city of Gori. Officers said they had come to provide security for returning residents.
Georgian Army units also appeared in Gori for the first time since they retreated under heavy Russian bombardment two weeks ago. They were lightly equipped — most had only rifles and pistols, and rode pickup trucks and personal cars — and arrived at a base that had been ransacked.
“We are the guys who fire artillery,” said one soldier, standing in the parking lot of his base. “Only we do not have an artillery to shoot.”
The commander of the artillery brigade, Maj. Gen. Devi Chankotadze, said in an interview in front of his headquarters that 170 Georgian soldiers had been killed in the conflict, and 1,200 wounded. Two-thirds of the wounded soldiers had returned to duty, he said.
General Chankotadze refused to discuss how many Georgian military units were combat ready; many had left vast amounts of equipment scattered on the battlefield or had it captured from its bases.
“I will not tell you how many brigades we have now,” he said. “But if we get an order, we are ready to follow it.”
The soldiers’ return was made possible when most of the Russian soldiers withdrew on Friday evening to Kremlin-defined security zones in Abkhazia, a separatist enclave in Georgia’s west, and South Ossetia, the breakaway region in the north where the fighting broke out two weeks ago.
On Saturday, Russian armored columns continued to pass over the Inguri River from the city of Zugdidi into Abkhazia, a local police spokesman said.
The Russians have also left the Georgian military base in Senaki, but only after confiscating almost everything of value, including televisions, refrigerators and even toilets, according to local residents who have watched the steady stream of Russian trucks moving in and out of the base for more than a week.
But Russian forces remain entrenched deep inside Georgia, maintaining checkpoints several miles from Gori close to the South Ossetian border, and two observation posts near Poti, a port city on the Black Sea.
Poti is outside the Russian-controlled buffer zone, but Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian military’s general staff, was quoted as saying Russian troops would continue to patrol the city.
“Poti is not in the security zone,” Russia’s Ria news agency reported on Saturday that General Nogovitsyn had said. “But that doesn’t mean that we will sit behind the fence and watch as they drive around in Hummers.” He was referring to United States Marine Corps Humvees, several of which had been confiscated by Russian troops from Poti last week.
Georgia and its allies in the West have called the buffer zones a violation of the cease-fire agreement brokered by the European Union, and have called on Russia to pull back to its positions before the conflict. Russian officials insist that peacekeeping agreements that ended fighting in Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the 1990s allow for the creation of security zones. The Kremlin is also preparing to recognize the independence of the two separatist enclaves, further clouding the diplomatic atmosphere.
Many refugees were returning to Gori on Saturday, adding to the 10,000 refugees who had returned as of Friday evening, said Maya Razmadze, a spokeswoman for Georgia’s Refugee Ministry.
The Georgian government has registered some 112,000 refugees from the conflict in South Ossetia, though the real number could be as high as 200,000, Ms. Razmadze said. These include ethnic Georgians from in and around Gori, and many of the 36,000 ethnic Georgians who lived in South Ossetia before the war. Another 1,500 people have fled their homes in the Kodori Gorge, near Abkhazia.
One of Tbilisi’s largest refugee shelters is in a dilapidated building that used to house the Soviet military headquarters in the South Caucasus. At the shelter, about 1,700 people share one makeshift water spigot and two toilets. There is no electricity, and the shelter is short of food.
“Thank God we have what we do,” said Ketevan Lekishvili, 75, a retired doctor, who said she had fled the village of Kareli with her daughter and two grandchildren as the bombs began to fall.
Among aid workers, there is now some hope that the flow of people returning home will help relieve Georgia’s strained refugee services.
“If the majority return to Gori, then it will be possible to deal with the rest of the refugees,” said Arsen Gvenetadze, a doctor working for a United Nations program at the shelter.
In Gori, electricity was on in the center of the city, but the water supply required testing to determine whether it is safe, said Shota Utiashvili, an official of the Interior Ministry.
C. J. Chivers reported from Gori, and Michael Schwirtz from Tbilisi, Georgia.
In the Georgian city of Gori on Saturday, a woman stood in her home, damaged from the recent fighting. Russian troops remain in parts of Georgia, despite a cease-fire agreement.
Russia said its military pullback had been completed, and large columns of Georgian police special forces were seen in and around the city of Gori. Officers said they had come to provide security for returning residents.
Georgian Army units also appeared in Gori for the first time since they retreated under heavy Russian bombardment two weeks ago. They were lightly equipped — most had only rifles and pistols, and rode pickup trucks and personal cars — and arrived at a base that had been ransacked.
“We are the guys who fire artillery,” said one soldier, standing in the parking lot of his base. “Only we do not have an artillery to shoot.”
The commander of the artillery brigade, Maj. Gen. Devi Chankotadze, said in an interview in front of his headquarters that 170 Georgian soldiers had been killed in the conflict, and 1,200 wounded. Two-thirds of the wounded soldiers had returned to duty, he said.
General Chankotadze refused to discuss how many Georgian military units were combat ready; many had left vast amounts of equipment scattered on the battlefield or had it captured from its bases.
“I will not tell you how many brigades we have now,” he said. “But if we get an order, we are ready to follow it.”
The soldiers’ return was made possible when most of the Russian soldiers withdrew on Friday evening to Kremlin-defined security zones in Abkhazia, a separatist enclave in Georgia’s west, and South Ossetia, the breakaway region in the north where the fighting broke out two weeks ago.
On Saturday, Russian armored columns continued to pass over the Inguri River from the city of Zugdidi into Abkhazia, a local police spokesman said.
The Russians have also left the Georgian military base in Senaki, but only after confiscating almost everything of value, including televisions, refrigerators and even toilets, according to local residents who have watched the steady stream of Russian trucks moving in and out of the base for more than a week.
But Russian forces remain entrenched deep inside Georgia, maintaining checkpoints several miles from Gori close to the South Ossetian border, and two observation posts near Poti, a port city on the Black Sea.
Poti is outside the Russian-controlled buffer zone, but Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian military’s general staff, was quoted as saying Russian troops would continue to patrol the city.
“Poti is not in the security zone,” Russia’s Ria news agency reported on Saturday that General Nogovitsyn had said. “But that doesn’t mean that we will sit behind the fence and watch as they drive around in Hummers.” He was referring to United States Marine Corps Humvees, several of which had been confiscated by Russian troops from Poti last week.
Georgia and its allies in the West have called the buffer zones a violation of the cease-fire agreement brokered by the European Union, and have called on Russia to pull back to its positions before the conflict. Russian officials insist that peacekeeping agreements that ended fighting in Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the 1990s allow for the creation of security zones. The Kremlin is also preparing to recognize the independence of the two separatist enclaves, further clouding the diplomatic atmosphere.
Many refugees were returning to Gori on Saturday, adding to the 10,000 refugees who had returned as of Friday evening, said Maya Razmadze, a spokeswoman for Georgia’s Refugee Ministry.The Georgian government has registered some 112,000 refugees from the conflict in South Ossetia, though the real number could be as high as 200,000, Ms. Razmadze said. These include ethnic Georgians from in and around Gori, and many of the 36,000 ethnic Georgians who lived in South Ossetia before the war. Another 1,500 people have fled their homes in the Kodori Gorge, near Abkhazia.
One of Tbilisi’s largest refugee shelters is in a dilapidated building that used to house the Soviet military headquarters in the South Caucasus. At the shelter, about 1,700 people share one makeshift water spigot and two toilets. There is no electricity, and the shelter is short of food.
“Thank God we have what we do,” said Ketevan Lekishvili, 75, a retired doctor, who said she had fled the village of Kareli with her daughter and two grandchildren as the bombs began to fall.
Among aid workers, there is now some hope that the flow of people returning home will help relieve Georgia’s strained refugee services.
“If the majority return to Gori, then it will be possible to deal with the rest of the refugees,” said Arsen Gvenetadze, a doctor working for a United Nations program at the shelter.
In Gori, electricity was on in the center of the city, but the water supply required testing to determine whether it is safe, said Shota Utiashvili, an official of the Interior Ministry.
C. J. Chivers reported from Gori, and Michael Schwirtz from Tbilisi, Georgia.
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