Six dead in Georgia, South Ossetia shoot-out
| Publisher | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| Author | Reuters |
| Publication Date | 2 August 2008 |
| Cite as | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Six dead in Georgia, South Ossetia shoot-out, 2 August 2008, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/4896ed23c.html [accessed 6 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
August 02, 2008
By Reuters
TBILISI – As many as six people died in a shoot-out in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, where Georgian forces exchanged fire with separatists overnight, a separatist website has said.
South Ossetia broke away from Georgia after a bloody war in the early 1990s. Russia has deployed a peacekeeping force there which Moscow says is needed to avert a new war.
South Ossetia said on its official website, cominf.org, on August 2 that the death toll had risen overnight from three to six people and armed clashes continued through the night on the outskirts of the separatist capital, Tskhinvali.
It said shooting came from three ethnic-Georgian villages, but Georgia blamed the rebels for provoking the clashes.
The commander of Georgia's peacekeeping force in the region, Mamuka Kurashvili, was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying South Ossetian peacekeepers shot at a Georgian village and suspected Russian peacekeepers of taking part.
Georgian peacekeepers and police officers returned fire and repelled the attack, he said.
Georgia's Interior Ministry said nine civilians in the Georgian villages in South Ossetia were injured, while Tskhinvali said 15 were injured on its side, up from seven reported on August 1.
"This is another attempt by the separatist side to involve Georgia in a military conflict," Georgia's state minister in charge of reintegration, Temur Iakobashvili, told reporters in Tbilisi before leaving to visit the shoot-out area.
"The Georgian side was forced to return fire," he added.
Russia's Foreign Ministry, in a separate statement, urged both sides to show restraint and said it was taking "energetic measures" to prevent an escalation of the armed conflict.
Russian news agencies quoted a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry as saying Russian peacekeepers were not involved in the exchange of fire.
The commander of Russia's paratroop force, celebrating Russia's annual Paratroop Day, turned up the rhetoric, saying his men were ready for deployment to South Ossetia to back up the peacekeepers, Interfax reported.
"A decision to deploy extra forces is the purview of the Security Council and president, but in any case Russia will not allow harm to come to its citizens residing in South Ossetia," the news agency quoted Valery Yevtukhovich as saying.
Georgia, which has irritated Russia by aspiring to join NATO, has accuses Moscow of seeking to annex South Ossetia and another rebel region, Abkhazia, and wants its peacekeepers to be replaced with an international force.
Russia has rejected the blames and accused Tbilisi, which views restoring control over the breakaway provinces as a top national priority, of artificially stoking crisis to find a pretext for seizing the regions by force.
