MOSCOW, July 7 (RIA Novosti) - A group of South Ossetian women have sent a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama asking him to help find their children, who they say were abducted by Georgian agents, an official said on Tuesday.
Authorities in the former Georgian republic say 13 South Ossetians have been abducted by Georgian special services since August 8, 2008, when Georgian forces attacked South Ossetia in a bid to bring it back under central control.
"The letter was written ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Moscow by 10 mothers and relatives of those who are currently being held illegally on Georgian territory," South Ossetia's human rights ombudsman, David Sanakoyev, told RIA Novosti.
He added that Georgia has officially declared seven of them missing.
"However, we have obtained a videotape that shows four of these seven being interrogated by Georgian special services," Sanakoyev said.
The U.S. Embassy declined to comment on the letter
Two weeks after the end of a five-day war with Georgia over South Ossetia last August, Russia recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another former Georgian republic, as independent states.
South Ossetia says over 1,500 people were killed during the Georgian assault, but the Investigation Committee at the Russian Prosecutor General's Office has confirmed the deaths of 162 South Ossetians and 48 Russian soldiers, including 10 peacekeepers who were stationed in the republic before Georgia's invasion.
