Over 800 S.Ossetians Sent to N.Ossetia
Eight hundred and nineteen people, 548 of them children, from breakaway South Ossetia have arrived in Russia’s North Ossetian Republic as of August 5, according to the southern division of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.
South Ossetian authorities have presented the outflow as an evacuation, amid the possible resumption of armed conflict.
Interfax news agency, however, reported on August 4, quoting Ermak Dzansolov, the deputy head of the North Ossetian government, as saying that it was not an evacuation. He said “it was not the first time” that North Ossetia had hosted children from South Ossetia as part of a pre-arranged summer-camp programme, which, he said, was an initiative of Teimuraz Mamsurov, the head of the North Ossetian Republic.
Meanwhile, the South Ossetian side said that two of its posts – in Ubiat and Mugut villages – had come under fire from Georgian police posts overnight on August 5. It said the South Ossetian side had not returned fire. There were no injuries.
The Georgian Interior Ministry, however, said that its police posts came under fire from the South Ossetian militia’s posts located in the Ossetian villages of Ubiat. It said that its posts were attacked by grenade launchers. No one was injured, the Georgian Interior Ministry said.
