"The detainees have been ascertained to be busy collecting intelligence concerning the location of militia posts and description of the terrain, which was admitted by them. They also confessed that they had acted on direct instructions from Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's military consultants. Investigation is underway," notes the committee.
South Ossetia's refusal to set free the Georgian security agents has disrupted a session of the mixed control Georgian-Ossetian settlement commission scheduled for July 1. A Georgian delegation refused to take part in the negotiations.
"Either our illegitimately-detained security agents will be released or it is useless to speak about any peace-building process. The latter means meeting each other halfway by definite moves rather than slogans at the negotiation table," said yesterday Minister of State on Conflict Settlement Georgy Khaindrava, the co-chairman of the control commission from the Georgian side.
Appearing today at a press conference in Moscow, Khaindrava said that there was no sense dramatizing the failure to stage this planned session.
Georgia believes that three Georgian financial police officers should be stationed at the Roksky tunnel, which will resolve all the current problems between Georgia and South Ossetia.
"What is implied is that we, like all civilized countries, should have customs officers on the border with another country, that is three unarmed men checking cargo traffic coming from the territory of Russia to Georgia," said Khaindrava.
No additional military units were deployed on the territory of Ossetia, according to the Georgian minister of state. "Only financial police posts were once replaced," added Khaindrava. It applied to smugglers since there is contraband traffic from Russia into Georgia.
"We have no claims in regard to Russia-all commodities are just required to undergo customs control," said the state minister.
The Georgian-Ossetian conflict's acute phase was in 1989-1992 when Georgia deprived South Ossetia of the autonomy status and conducted punitive operations there. Peacekeepers have stayed in the zone since 1992.
The mixed control commission is represented by Georgia, Russia, South Ossetia and North Ossetia (a republic integrated in Russia, with the greater bulk of the Ossetian people living there). South Ossetia has declared that almost all its residents have already obtained Russian citizenship.
