South Osetian leaders meet with US congressmen

A delegation of US congressmen has arrived in Tskhinvali for a familiarization visit today. "Forces not interested in the peace process development came into power in Georgia after the change of authorities. Mikhail Saakashvili will destroy Georgia and disgrace everybody lending support to him," Minister for Special Affairs of the Republic of South Osetia Boris Chochiyev said.

The head of the delegation made his suppositions about the so called third force, which opens fire violating all agreements: "Each side blames the opposite one for violating ceasefire agreements. Does it evidence that informal groups supported by Russia act in the conflict zone?" "Yesterday, in the course of the meeting in Tbilisi, I tried to persuade Zurab Zhvania that the struggle between Georgian Interior Troops and Defense Ministry forces took place here. There is a serious split between them. One shouldn't invent any mythical uncontrollable units. I told them in Tbilisi yesterday that this very third force was Georgian Interior Minister Mr Okruashvili," Boris Chochiyev said. He asked the American guests to bring the following questions to the attention of the US Congress: against whom does the US arm Georgia and what do 5 thousand gunmen from Georgia do in South Osetia?