South Ossetia Says Georgia Behind Antitank Mine Blast

Text of report by South Ossetian Press and Information Committee website on 26 January

Tskhinvali, 26 January: Officers of the Russian battalion [of the Joint Peacekeeping Force] were seriously wounded on 15 January 2007, not far from the Pauk observation post. The Georgian side has denied any involvement in the incident. Commenting on the current situation the first deputy prime minister of the republic of South Ossetia, Boris Chochiyev has said:

“Everything has become clear today. The Georgian special services, operating on territory temporarily outside the control of the South Ossetian authorities, have hindered the investigation into the incident being carried out by Russian peacekeepers. They were actively supported in this by the so-called ‘alternative government’.

“However, on 24 January 2007 investigators from the prosecutor’s office of the Russian Group of Forces in Transcaucasia and an engineering reconnaissance group from the Russian peacekeeping battalion discovered an antitank mine with fresh traces of installation in the area where the armoured vehicle was blown up. Footprints of two strangers were discovered at the scene of the incident. The track led from the spot where the mine was laid towards the Georgian village of Dzartsemi.

“All this points to the fact that the Georgian side is trying in whatever way it can to secure the removal of the Russian Pauk observation post, which was set up on the basis of a decision by the JCC [Joint Control Commission].

“This is not in the interests of the people, but rather it is in the interests of the criminals and ‘puppets’ of Saakashvili, who pursue a single objective – to destabilize the situation in the conflict zone and thus demonstrate to the international community that Ossetians are a criminal community and they are not a good match for the Kosovo model”.

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