Grim reminders as Russian troops leave

By James Rodgers
BBC News, South Ossetia

There was a real sense of occasion and an element of public performance in the Russian troop pullout, but that could not hide some unpleasant truths.

Journalists were allowed to watch the pullout from the checkpoint at Karaleti

Journalists had been brought from both the South Ossetian and Georgian sides to witness the withdrawal. This was a media event as well as a military operation.

I travelled to the Georgian village of Karaleti with the press department of the Russian defence ministry.

We set off before dawn from Vladikavkaz in North Ossetia.

The last part of our route through the Caucasus mountains followed the one taken by the Russian troops in August.

Once we had crossed into South Ossetia, freshly painted slogans expressing thanks to Russia and the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, decorated the walls.

Some of the steep mountain slopes which stretched away from the road were thickly wooded with evergreens and every shade of autumn leaf from yellow to red.

Ruined ancient watchtowers were a reminder of the region's warring history.

Burnt houses

We arrived at a Russian military base. Here we were told to move from the bus into an armoured military truck.

The official reason was security but it was hard not to share the muttered suspicions of one of our group.

He wondered out loud if the choice of vehicle was to stop us seeing clearly the wholesale destruction of villages which had been home to South Ossetia's ethnic Georgian population.

Our view was restricted to what we could see through the small windows at the back of the armoured vehicle.

We passed rows of burnt houses and smashed-up shops. South Ossetian civilian areas had clearly suffered too.

Still, there were security concerns.

It was only on Friday that an explosion at the Russian military base in the South Ossetian regional capital, Tskhinvali, killed 11 people.

We did not stop there on this trip.

Elusive peace

On the last leg of our journey to Karaleti, I recognised a petrol station which had served as Georgian passport control when I visited the region a couple of years ago.

All of this area was clearly under Russian control now.

The withdrawal went according to plan. A bulldozer levelled the land where the Russian position had stood.

Sappers carefully swept the soil with metal-detectors, taking care to lessen the risk of some deadly remnants of war causing further civilian casualties.

We were taken a few kilometres up the road to watch the withdrawing column pass. Tanks, armoured personnel carriers and troop trucks rolled by.

The sun shone and the air was warm but there was a strong smell of decay. Something or someone was dead and decomposing nearby.

It was a grim reminder that a lasting peace acceptable to all parties remains elusive.