South Ossetia's militia ordered to open return fire on Georgians

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of South Ossetia has ordered its watching stations (posts) to respond with return aimed fire, in case they are attacked by aimed fire from Georgian positions.

This order was issued after today South Ossetian posts, occupied by law enforcers, were shelled by machine guns from the side of Georgian village of Nikozy.

"They continue the chain of provocations, which should finally, in the opinion of the Georgian party, force the Ossetian party into a similar response. The farther they go, the more difficult it becomes to constrain the endangered MIA personnel from return actions. It's hard to urge people not to defend themselves," said Mikhail Mindzaev, acting Interior Minister of the Republic, as quoted by the State Committee for Press and Information.

Mr Mindzaev has emphasized that South Ossetia would not admit death of its people, and noted that he does not quite understand the role of international observers in the safety zone. "The observers stick to some unilateral role, and we see no actions on their part," Mikhail Mindzaev has added. According to the acting Minister, "no observers' influence on Georgian fighters and other vandals is felt so far," the RIA "Novosti" Agency reports.

In his turn, Ibragim Gasseev, Deputy Defence Minister of South Ossetia, has also reported that situation has again aggravated in the Znaur District of the Republic: at night of October 17, the Ossetian village of Mugut was shelled from the Georgian village of Dvani. According to Mr Gasseev, the shelling from automatic fire-arms and machine guns lasted for five minutes. There are damages caused to dwelling houses.