EU Monitors Condemn Attack that Killed One Policeman

An explosion triggered by a trip-wire at South Ossetian administrative border on Sunday that killed on Georgian policeman “is very worrying,” which “may further increase tensions,” EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM) said.

The European monitors have confirmed initial accounts of the Georgian Interior Ministry and said that at around 9am an explosion took place north of Dvani, in the vicinity of the South Ossetian administrative boundary line. One Georgian police car carrying five officers was hit. One person died, the other four were injured. A second explosion occurred at the same spot when a response team arrived. The second explosion injured two more Georgian police officers.

According to initial investigations, head of EUMM Hansjörg Haber said, the first explosion seemed to be triggered by a trip-wire.

“Thus, attackers did not discriminate between potential victims, but any car could have been hit,” he said in a statement. “It is an abominable act that the second explosion obviously targeted the people coming to help the victims of the first one.”

“This attack, whilst policemen were going about their lawful duties, is a totally unacceptable breach of the Sarkozy–Medvedev Agreements. We expect this incident to be thoroughly investigated on both sides of the South Ossetian Administrative Boundary line and those responsible duly prosecuted,” he added.

The mission also said in the statement that the village of Dvani on the Georgian side of the administrative border line had repeatedly been the location of incidents.

“Today’s incident may thus further increase tensions. Therefore, the quick implementation of the Incident Prevention Mechanism approved during the last round of Geneva Talks becomes even more important to prevent this kind of incidents and decrease tensions,” it said.

With this recent incident, the number of Georgian policemen killed in an immediate vicinity of the Abkhaz and South Ossetian administrative borders has reached twelve since the August war.

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