United Nations monitors began pulling out of Georgia on Tuesday, testing security almost a year since the former Soviet republic's war with Russia. A deadline for the OSCE to withdraw also passes on Tuesday after negotiations with Russia broke down in May. The mission conducted its last patrol on Friday, and has already left its hillside headquarters in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.
Russia rejected extending the mandates of some 130 UN monitors in breakaway Abkhazia and 20 monitors of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, who operated in rebel South Ossetia until last August's war. Moscow recognised the territories as independent states after crushing a Georgian assault on South Ossetia in a five-day war. Russia demanded separate monitoring missions for the regions, which Georgia said would violate its sovereignty.
In Abkhazia on Monday, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmond Mulet was quoted by Abkhaz media as saying military and police monitors would start leaving on Tuesday and complete the withdrawal by July 15, a month after Russia vetoed a new mandate.