Georgian prisoners released in S. Ossetia

The thirty-nine Georgian servicemen seized by South Ossetian commandos in Vanati on July 7 have been released today, on July 9, in Tskhinvali. The South Ossetian party made a decision to deliver the prisoners to their parents whom they contacted via the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs, not to Georgia's official government, emphasizing thereby that they took this step entirely for good will considerations. As the Georgian servicemen admit, they have not served longer than one month and they were sent to the Georgian-Ossetian conflict area on a vague mission. Receiving an invitation from the South Ossetian side, first ten family members and parents came from Georgia and were waiting at the entrance to Tskhinvali to take their sons. However, soon enough the Georgian side, in particular Gori district governor Kareli prohibited parents from going to Tskhinvali saying that that was a matter of state, so the government would take care to liberate them.

In a while, Georgii Khaindrava, the Georgian co-chair of the Mixed Control Commission, arrived in Tskhinvali accompanied by General Yevnevich, commander of Russia's Land Forces. They came to negotiate for the liberation of the prisoners. Talks continued until this afternoon and led to an agreement providing for the release of the prisoners. They were removed along a by-pass highway to go round the police post in Tkviavi, escorted by Russian peacekeepers with Nabzdorov, Commander of the Mixed Peacekeeping Forces, at the head.

They told Georgian television reporters that they had been treated very humanely and had not been degraded in any way. One prisoner addressed Nino Burjanadze, speaker of the Georgian parliament, reminding her that she had promised to send her sons to war when this was necessary. "For some reason, we do not see your children here or the children of other senior officials," he said. The released servicemen were delivered to Internal Affairs Minister Irakli Okruashvili personally. Irakli Okruashvili said that the Georgian side would not tolerate the humiliation to which the Ossetian side had exposed the prisoners making them kneel and that an adequate response would follow.

Both the Ossetian and the Georgian sides deny reports distributed by some news agencies today that Gogi Tatukhashvili, commander of Georgia's internal affairs troops, has been imprisoned. The information about heavy fire from the Ossetian side towards the Georgian villages of Nikozi and Yeredvi overnight does not match reality, either. Even residents of the above-mentioned villages have not confirmed this. They told Georgian reporters just a few shots and one burst of submachine gun fire had sounded.