EU monitors fan out in Georgia

TBILISI, Georgia, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- The European Union began sending 200 civilian monitors to Georgia Wednesday, despite threats by Russia to bar them from buffer zones, officials said.

The monitors were allowed to pass through Russian checkpoints in several locations to enter the buffer zones surrounding the Russian-leaning provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Under a cease-fire agreement brokered by France, European monitors would replace Russian peacekeeping units that have command posts in the buffer zones while Russian forces were to withdraw to South Ossetia and Abkhazia by Oct. 10.

"We now look forward to all parties fulfilling their commitments as much as the EU did," Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, said after a mission inauguration ceremony in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

Initial reports indicated Russian troops would bar monitors from operating in buffer zones. A spokesman for the Russian mission in South Ossetia said monitors wouldn't be allowed in the zone until they signed a memorandum "to define clear functions" of monitors and Russian peacekeepers, the Times said.

But the European official said monitors were allowed to enter buffer zones in several places.

Tensions between Russia and Georgia erupted into warfare in early August after Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili sent troops to rein in rebels in the South Ossetia capital. Russia sent its troops into South Ossetia, Abkhazia and advanced into Georgian territory.