Saakashvili Comments on Hostage-Taking in South Ossetia

At a session of the Georgian National Security Council on January 22 President Mikheil Saakashvili commented regarding the hostage-taking crisis in breakaway South Ossetia and said that Georgia should ?avoid provocations? in the conflict zone. He also questioned effectiveness of the Russian peacekeeping troops deployed in the conflict zone.

?We do not need confrontation; we do not need destabilization? But exchange of criminals into [police] officials is absolutely inadmissible for us,? Mikheil Saakashvili said.

Georgian policeman Lado Chalauri was detained by the South Ossetian side on January 20. South Ossetian side agrees to release Chalauri only in case the Georgian side hands over Oleg Pukhaev, an Ossetian who was arrested by the Georgian police on January 19. He is accused of killing two persons last February.

?I want also to talk about the role of the Russian peacekeepers in the conflict zone. [The Georgian] hostage was kidnapped just in front of the Russian peacekeepers? [checkpoint]. There is a question: Russian peacekeepers are deployed there in order to secure stability, or to trigger destabilization?? the Georgian President said.

He also said that the National Security Council meeting was convened to discuss the South Ossetian peace plan, which he intends to unveil on January 26 at the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe in Strasbourg.