Tskhinvali Affirms Georgian Law Enforcers Fired against South Ossetian Journalists, Georgian Side Denies Information

Ossetian media has reported on the incident in the Gvirgvina village. Reportedly yesterday at 5 am the armed individuals kidnapped Mikheil Kulumbegov living in the same village. The detainee was released few hours later. Granting an interview to Tskhinvali TV Kulumbegov said he was intruded into the house and was kidnapped with gun threats in the direction of the Georgian village Dirbi. According him the kidnappers were speaking Georgian telling Kulumbegov he was a hostage to be exchanged into a Georgian detained in Tskhinvali. But later they changed their minds and released him unharmed.

According to the Tskhinvali TV journalist Madina Valieva the camera crew having arrived in the village to film the incident was met with a fire from the Georgian village, as a result the video cameras were damaged.

The footage aired on Tskhinvali TV features the cameraman running away, the voice of the rifle shots is being heard and at this moment the video camera goes off. The fire, according to Madina Valieva was launched from the armored Cobra car.

With regard to the incident in the Gvirgvina village the Security Committee of de facto Republic of South Ossetia released an urgent statement accusing the Georgian side of staging an armed provocation. According to the security press service spokesperson the incident coincided with another round of the meeting of the representatives of Geneva talks. In the course of the meeting the Ossetian side is going to demand the issuance of the document on non-attack and non-use of force.

The Georgian side disagrees with the issuance of the document of the kind. According to the security service of de facto Republic of S. Ossetia through this incident the Georgian side tried to break the talks off.

The Ossetian side, Shida Kartli regional police chief Vladimir Jugheli said, intentionally disseminated the disinformation in the course of Geneva talks. No incident has taken place, according to him, and everything has been made up. In the so called adjacent villages, Vladimir Jugheli said, the Georgian patrol police units have been deployed to protect the combines working in the fields since there were attempts by the Ossetian armed groups to seize combines from the Georgian farmers. The police notified Russian side too. According to the police chief at the moment the Russian troops have replaced the representatives of de facto authorities at all the check points.

Russian armed units have undertaken to guard so called borders of de facto republic. Accordingly they carry responsibility for the peace in the adjacent Ossetian villages. The Russian side keeps silence over the information disseminated over the incident by Tskhinvali representatives.

Traditionally in the course of every round of Geneva talks either the exchange of hostages or an incident takes place. For long now no meetings of the working groups for incident prevention and reactive mechanisms have been held. Several times the Geneva talks' co-chairmen called upon the parties to resume aforementioned meetings but the Ossetian side has got its own stipulations and is not going to get back to the table for negotiations until finding the persons lost without trace.