Georgia and South Ossetia exchange prisoners

In the evening on November 11, the six Georgians who stayed in South-Ossetian captivity were released in exchange for the two Ossetians who were freed by Georgia on November 12. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent learnt about it from Varvara Parkhomenko who works for the "Demos" Centre.

According to Ms Parkhomenko, all the six released Georgians originate from Kerbali village, Gori District.

"Information appeared that the Ossetian party had demanded to release in exchange its two prisoners, and right on November 12 the Georgian party delivered two persons to the European Commissioner for Human rights Thomas Hammerberg," said the human rights activist. "These two are Kelekhsaev father and son. The boy is Alan Kelekhsaev, 16, and his father's name is Avtandil. From mid-October, after withdrawal of Russian troops from the buffer zone, the Georgian police detained 13 persons - 11 persons right after withdrawal of troops and 2 more - on October 25," said Varvara Parkhomenko.

These people were detained in pre-border villages. Relatives knew nothing about any of them up to November 11. The official inquiries submitted by the "Demos" Centre to the prosecutor's office and the commission for searching refugees, prisoners and hostages remained unanswered.

On November 11, the fate of five detainees became clear, the Kelekhsaev father and son among them. Shota Utiashvili, spokesman of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, has confirmed that the detainees were kept in the investigatory insulator (SIZO) of Tbilisi.

Varvara Parkhomenko further said that the Kelekhsaevs were handed over to Mr Hammerberg on November 12. The Council of Europe's Commissioner personally brought them to Tskhinvali, where he held negotiations with the Ossetian party, in particular, with Ombudsman David Sanakoev. They discussed exchange of hostages and release of the Georgian soldiers who are still in Ossetian captivity.

Apart from the released Kelakhsaevs, three more persons - Ibragim Laliev, Lavrentiy Kaziev and Goler Toroshelidze, detained in the vicinity of the frontier village Artsevi on October 7 or 8, were found in one of Georgian SIZOs. Nothing is known so far on the whereabouts of the rest of them, as Ms Parkhomenko said.