AI
Georgian village attacked in breakaway South Ossetia
The Russians of South Ossetia fought and died for their independence once and now they will have to do it all over again.
Have to wait and see if the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline makes it through any conflict.
Ossetia's soldiers take position near village of Pristi
Posted: 11 July 2004 0808 hrs
MOSCOW : A village populated by Georgians in Georgia's breakaway territory of South Ossetia was attacked by grenade launchers and automatic weapons fire, the Interfax news agency reported.
"Unknown assailants opened fire at around 11:30 pm (1930 GMT) towards the village of Tamaracheni" next to the South Ossetian 'capital' Tskhinvali, said a representative of the joint Georgian peace forces -- made up of troops from Georgia, Russia and South Ossetia.
There was no information on any casualties, he added.
A half-hour attack by grenade-launchers destroyed a school building and childrens' playground in the town in the mountainous Caucasus territory, a Georgian police source was quoted as saying by the Ria-Novosti news agency.
South Ossetian separatist leader Robert Kokoity said his militiamen opened fire Saturday on an artillery position near Tamaracheni.
The tiny mountainous province on Georgia's border with Russia has seen a string of clashes in the past week which have increased tensions between Tbilisi, South Ossetia's self-proclaimed government and Russian peacekeepers, who many Georgians suspect of siding with the separatists.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili warned Russia on Saturday not to support separatists in South Ossetia and said he was holding top-level talks with Moscow and Washington to prevent escalating violence in the breakaway Georgian region erupting into armed conflict.
"There is a real danger of large-scale conflict being sparked by a foreign nation," Saakashvili told the national military academy. He warned Russia not to become involved in armed conflict over South Ossetia with Georgia, a former Soviet republic which is openly seeking closer ties with Washington.
South Ossetia fought a bitter three-year battle for independence from Tbilisi with Russian support after the breakup of the Soviet Union and is now effectively a Russian protectorate.
South Ossetia, which has a population of about 70,000, came under trilateral Russian, Georgian and Ossetian control with a 1992 agreement ending the three-year civil war.
Although Georgia pledged in that accord not to use violence or impose sanctions against landlocked South Ossetia, President Saakashvili has vowed to bring South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia, on the Black Sea coast, back into his fractured former Soviet republic.
Earlier Saturday there was another clash of mortar and automatic arms fire at a Georgian-populated village in South Ossetia.
Three Georgian peacekeepers and a police officer were injured in that violence, two of them seriously.
Kokoity accused the Georgian authorities of boosting the military hardware available for use against the separatists in South Ossetia, including armoured cars and helicopters.
Moscow, which is seeking to prevent its role as regional power broker slipping away to the US, called this week for calm, but said on Friday that it would not tolerate armed intervention in South Ossetia.
The violence further ratcheted up tension following an incident on Thursday when Ossetian separatists briefly took about 40 Georgian soldiers hostage, and Georgian troops impounded two Russian trucks carrying military equipment.
- AFP
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/95044/1/.html
The Russians of South Ossetia fought and died for their independence once and now they will have to do it all over again.
Have to wait and see if the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline makes it through any conflict.
Ossetia's soldiers take position near village of Pristi
Posted: 11 July 2004 0808 hrs
MOSCOW : A village populated by Georgians in Georgia's breakaway territory of South Ossetia was attacked by grenade launchers and automatic weapons fire, the Interfax news agency reported.
"Unknown assailants opened fire at around 11:30 pm (1930 GMT) towards the village of Tamaracheni" next to the South Ossetian 'capital' Tskhinvali, said a representative of the joint Georgian peace forces -- made up of troops from Georgia, Russia and South Ossetia.
There was no information on any casualties, he added.
A half-hour attack by grenade-launchers destroyed a school building and childrens' playground in the town in the mountainous Caucasus territory, a Georgian police source was quoted as saying by the Ria-Novosti news agency.
South Ossetian separatist leader Robert Kokoity said his militiamen opened fire Saturday on an artillery position near Tamaracheni.
The tiny mountainous province on Georgia's border with Russia has seen a string of clashes in the past week which have increased tensions between Tbilisi, South Ossetia's self-proclaimed government and Russian peacekeepers, who many Georgians suspect of siding with the separatists.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili warned Russia on Saturday not to support separatists in South Ossetia and said he was holding top-level talks with Moscow and Washington to prevent escalating violence in the breakaway Georgian region erupting into armed conflict.
"There is a real danger of large-scale conflict being sparked by a foreign nation," Saakashvili told the national military academy. He warned Russia not to become involved in armed conflict over South Ossetia with Georgia, a former Soviet republic which is openly seeking closer ties with Washington.
South Ossetia fought a bitter three-year battle for independence from Tbilisi with Russian support after the breakup of the Soviet Union and is now effectively a Russian protectorate.
South Ossetia, which has a population of about 70,000, came under trilateral Russian, Georgian and Ossetian control with a 1992 agreement ending the three-year civil war.
Although Georgia pledged in that accord not to use violence or impose sanctions against landlocked South Ossetia, President Saakashvili has vowed to bring South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia, on the Black Sea coast, back into his fractured former Soviet republic.
Earlier Saturday there was another clash of mortar and automatic arms fire at a Georgian-populated village in South Ossetia.
Three Georgian peacekeepers and a police officer were injured in that violence, two of them seriously.
Kokoity accused the Georgian authorities of boosting the military hardware available for use against the separatists in South Ossetia, including armoured cars and helicopters.
Moscow, which is seeking to prevent its role as regional power broker slipping away to the US, called this week for calm, but said on Friday that it would not tolerate armed intervention in South Ossetia.
The violence further ratcheted up tension following an incident on Thursday when Ossetian separatists briefly took about 40 Georgian soldiers hostage, and Georgian troops impounded two Russian trucks carrying military equipment.
- AFP
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/95044/1/.html
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