MFA: Reported Clash Aimed Against Potential Top-Level Talks

The Georgian Foreign Ministry said on October 31 that a reported clash in the Java district of breakaway South Ossetia is ?disinformation? and ?a provocation directed against the Georgian side?s peaceful initiative? involving a proposal to hold talks between President Saakashvili and South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity.

Kokoity refused to hold talks with the Georgian side following the incident, accusing the authorities in Tbilisi of ?state terrorism.?

Details of the reported clash remain unclear.

Early on October 31 the South Ossetian side reported that ?a squad of four Georgian saboteurs? was eliminated. Later, South Ossetian sources said that they were ?Chechen militants? and not Georgians.

In the evening on October 31, the breakaway South Ossetia?s Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that four men were killed, without specifying who they were. But the statement reads: ?A squad of saboteurs had automatic guns and pistols with silencers, a large number of explosives, maps with some districts of South Ossetia? Wahhabist literature, and Russian military uniforms with markings of the peacekeeping forces.?

?Currently measures are underway to find out the identities of these people. But it can be stated for sure that the group infiltrated South Ossetian territory from Georgia?s Oni district [in the western mountainous region of Racha bordering with breakaway South Ossetia],? the breakaway region?s Foreign Ministry said.

This clash reportedly occurred in a district that is outside of the peacekeeping troops? and OSCE observers zone of responsibility. The incident has triggered officials in Tbilisi to once again call for the expansion of the zone of monitoring to the entire territory of the breakaway region.

?We express serious hope that the international community will assess this situation correctly and distinguish between truth and lies. We also hope that it will continue to support Georgia in order to provide maximal monitoring in the regions. We need this most of all now, when provocations occur on a daily basis,? MP Givi Targamadze, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Defense and Security, said.

Targamadze also repeated the call for a change in the peacekeeping format.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)