Both the authorities of breakaway South Ossetia and Russian peacekeepers refuted the Georgian Interior Ministry?s report about its efforts to release five Ossetian civilians detained for a short time in the conflict zone on August 24, calling the report “misinformation.”
In a statement issued through the South Ossetian Press and Information Committee on August 25, Interior Minister of the unrecognized republic Mikhail Mindzaev said that a car with five Ossetian civilians ? three men, one woman and one child – was seized by a masked armed men in the Georgian village of Kekhvi.
Mindzaev said that the woman and child were immediately released and two men managed to escape, while one man ? Avtandil Pliev, ?who failed to get away, was severely beaten up.? Mindzaev said quoting the victims of the incident that relatives of those four Georgians who have been missing in the conflict zone since June 6, as well as local police officers, participated in this attack .
The Georgian Interior Ministry reported on August 24 that five Ossetians who were detained by relatives of the four missing Georgians, were released after ?the reaction from the Georgian Interior Ministry.?
But according to South Ossetian Press and Information Committee, Sergey Yantsevich, acting commander of the Russian peacekeeping forces stationed in the South Ossetian conflict zone, also denied the involvement of the Georgian Interior Ministry in the release of the Ossetians.
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