30 May 2005, 13:19
Unsettled conflict yields more victims
A skirmish between Georgian police officers and South Ossetian military men occurred at about 7.00 pm on 29 May near the Georgian village of Kurta (near the motorway between Tskhinvali and Java). As a result, three Ossetian servicemen were killed: Murat Kochiyev, Guram Jagayev and Ludwig Biazrov, Caucasian Knot was told at the headquarters of the peacekeeping contingent in the conflict area. The fourth serviceman, Anatoly Kochiyev, wounded a Georgian policeman, Roland Hetagashvili, who died later. Anatoly Kochiyev also died afterwards in the republican hospital. Another two Georgian policemen were wounded.
A major conflict has so far been prevented and the parties have agreed on a joint investigation into the incident. They disagree as to the causes of what happened though. Thus, Georgian authorities say the Ossetian servicemen were drunk and failed to stop their car at a Georgian post to pass a regular document check procedure. At a next post they allegedly opened fire and killed one Georgian policeman, after which fire on them was opened in response.
In South Ossetia, there is another version of the incident: the Ossetian military men were not drunk, but were driving quietly and did not bother anyone when fire was opened on them, NTV says. All this allegedly happened in an area where no police posts at all should be stationed.
The bodies of the killed servicemen are currently in a Georgian-controlled hospital and the Georgian party refuses to turn them up for a post-mortem examination. The press service of the South Ossetian Defence Ministry has already made a statement in which it views the incident as a provocation on the Georgian part. In doing so, the Ossetian party indicates there are no witnesses for the Ossetian part left, while Georgia's law enforcement agencies are concealing the true content of the incident. South Ossetian Defence Minister Anatoly Barankevich says he has asked for permission to talk to the wounded Georgian policemen, but was told they had "gone home."
"This crime is another provocation of the Georgian party. Such crimes are committed, as a rule, on the threshold of meetings of the Joint Control Commission on the settlement of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict and pursue the goal of disruption of the negotiation process. The Georgian party has rudely violated the previously concluded JCC agreements on free movement in the conflict area," says the release of the press service of the South Ossetian Defence and Emergencies Ministry.
More about Georgian-Ossetian conflict:
