Tskhinvali Calls on Tbilisi for Restraint
President of self-styled South Ossetian Republic Edward Kokoev called on the Georgian side on June 24 to ?reject the language of ultimatums.?
?The South Ossetian [de facto] authorities support peaceful settlement of the conflict through negotiations. It is not necessary to demonstrate force and speak in the language of ultimatums, like it occurred recently, when the top official of the Georgian authorities set ultimatum to the Ossetian side,? Kokoev told reporters in the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali on June 24.
Georgian Interior Minister Irakli Okruashvili issued an ultimatum to the leadership of South Ossetia, giving them 48 hours to detain and extradite a soldier responsible for wounding an ethnic Georgian resident in the breakaway region. Otherwise, Okruashvili threatened with a security operation in South Ossetia.
The shot allegedly fired from the training ground of the South Ossetian militia groups, slightly wounded 70-year-old ethnic Georgian woman, resident of the breakaway region.
The ultimatum deadline expired on June 24. Neither the Ossetian side arrested person responsible for injuring a civilian, nor the Georgian side has carried out any special operation in the breakaway region so far.
