Tbilisi’s ‘Anti-Ossetian Campaign’ Blamed for Death of Man

In a statement issued on January 31 the Foreign Ministry of breakaway South Ossetia condemned the “murder of a Russian citizen, resident of Java district [of South Ossetia] Vitaly Bitiev” in the Georgian village of Kekhvi, as “the direct result of the anti-Ossetian campaign carried out by the Georgian authorities.”

According to this statement, Bitiev, 33, was captured in the village of Kekhvi on January 26 and held there for two days, where he died after “being brutally beaten.” The South Ossetian side also claims that the incident occurred in the vicinity of an “illegally installed checkpoint of the Georgian Interior Ministry forces.”

“Despite the existing agreements between the Georgian and South Ossetian sides on mutual cooperation between the law enforcement agencies, the South Ossetian investigators were not allowed at the scene of the crime,” the statement reads.

The Georgian Interior Ministry declined to comment on this report.

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