S.Ossetia Ruled by ‘Bandits’ – Interior Minister

Vano Merabishvili, the Georgian interior minister, said that breakaway South Ossetia was “a black hole” ruled by “bandits and illegal groups.”

“Unfortunately, this region remains a place where Georgian citizens residing there feel unprotected,” Merabishvili told reporters on March 28. “I hope that sooner or later this [South Ossetian secessionist] regime will end its existence and the people will breathe freely with the resumption of order and legality.”

A 25-year-old woman died in a car explosion in Tskhinvali on March 27. The car belonged to South Ossetian chief prosecutor Teimuraz Khugayev, who reportedly, was the target of the attack. Khugayev was not in the car at the time, but his driver was badly injured.

Two South Ossetian militiamen were killed in a blast in the village of Dmenisi on February 28 and on March 23 two men, a peacekeeper from Russia’s North Ossetian peacekeeping battalion and a South Ossetian security service agent, were badly wounded when their car exploded.

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