Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Renewed clashes reported between Georgia, breakaway region



Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 19 July 2004 0403 hrs

TBILISI : Fighting between Georgia and its breakaway province of South Ossetia flared up again, three days after the two sides signed an agreement aimed at ending their escalating conflict.

Intensive shooting was heard Sunday at 9pm local time (1700 GMT) near the town of Achabeti, located near the frontline separating the two sides, Georgia's Rustavi 2 television reported.

The firing, coming from the South-Ossetian side, and was directed at locations controlled by the Georgian side, a Rustavi reporter said, adding that no casualties had been reported.

The shooting died down after 20 minutes, the Russian radio station Moscow Echo reported, quoting a senior Georgian lawmaker, Givi Targamadze, who heads the defense and security parliamentary committee.

The incident erupted after Georgian soldiers earlier Sunday seized an Ossetian truck which Tbilisi says was carrying ammunition and arrested its driver.

The truck was holding three antitank shells, Georgian Interior Minister Irakli Okruashvili told reporters.

"The vehicle was headed for the Dzhava area," where Tbilisi says Ossetian troops are based, Okruashvili said.

Okruashvili also accused Russian peacekeeping forces based near where the vehicle was confiscated of trying to prevent Georgian soldiers from seizing the truck and arresting its driver.

Targamadze said the weapons seized in the truck would not be handed over either to the Ossetian or the Russian side, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

"There can be no question of (the ammunition) being handed over," RIA Novosti quoted Targamadze as saying.

Georgia and South Ossetia signed an agreement Thursday with northern neighbour Russia after talks on Wednesday and Thursday aimed at ending an escalating tussle over the future of the disputed province.

The region has been tense for the last week with Ossetians claiming some 200 Georgian military personnel had entered their territory. The Georgian government in Tbilisi has denied this claim.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who came to power last January, has vowed to restore Georgian authority in both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another rebellious Georgian province.

The tiny mountainous region on Georgia's northern border with Russia has seen a string of clashes recently that have increased tensions between the Georgian government, South Ossetia's self-proclaimed government, and Moscow.

South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia after fighting a civil war against Tbilisi with Russian support in the early 1990s, following the fall of the Soviet Union.

Today the province is effectively a Russian protectorate, with most residents holding Russian passports, using rubles and relying on Moscow to keep Georgian authorities at bay. Peacekeepers from Russia, Georgia and South Ossetia patrol separate parts of the province.

Georgia broke away from the Soviet Union to become a separate independent country after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

- AFP

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