Georgia Attacked South Ossetia

The situation in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone has again become heated. The reason is the provocative shelling of South Ossetia from Georgian territory on September 20, during the celebration of the Independence Day in the self-styled republic.

The explosions roared in the evening, at about 19.00, on the southern outskirts of Tskhinval, when the celebration festivities were drawing to a close and the people were coming home. Three shells fired from a 120-mm mortar hit a residential area, houses were damaged and people wounded.

As South-Ossetian Minister of Defense, Anatoli Barankevich, told journalists, one shell exploded at the Bakery Plant, and two others hit the yards of apartment houses. The shell that exploded at the Bakery Plant set two cars parked in front of the building on fire.

From seven to nine Tskhinval's residents were wounded, among them a 2-years-old girl. The girl and her mother were urgently taken to North Ossetia in an ambulance and operated on.

The explosion sites were visited by South-Ossetian President Edward Kokoity and Abkhazian President Sergei Bagapsh, the latter having come to Tskhinval on occasion of the celebration of South Ossetia's 15th independence anniversary. Sergei Bagapsh said that because of the shelling of Tskhinval from Georgian territory he had ordered Abkhazian troops to be put on alert.

Commenting on the incident, the Abkhazian leader said: "Now they will probably say that the Ossetians fired on themselves during their national holiday. No fear, we shall find all the material evidence. We have already found M-15 rifle cartridges. Neither Abkhazian, nor South-Ossetian army use American rifles, but it was just such cartridges that have been gathered at the site of yesterday's firing on the peacekeeping post".

Russian peacekeepers and OSCE observers, who arrived at the sites of the explosions half an hour later, started investigating the incident. According to Marat Kulahmetov, commander of the peacekeeping force in the conflict zone, the investigation revealed that the shelling had been from the direction of the village of Nikozi, populated mostly by Georgians.

The Georgian Ministry of Defense was quick to refute the reports of the shelling having been conducted from Georgian territory. M. Saakashvili, in his usual offhand manner, accused Moscow of escalating the tension and appealed to his Western patrons.

However, this time he had no luck in belittling the incident. Such an outrageous occurrence was taken notice of over the ocean. Washington could not ignore the fact of peaceful civilians being killed and sharply criticized Georgia's actions. The Bush administration called on Georgia to punish those responsible for the shelling and "take urgent action to demonstrate its commitment to a peaceful settlement of the conflict in South Ossetia"".

For its turn, South Ossetia declared that it suspends peaceful talks with Tbilisi until Georgia apologizes for the shelling of Tskhinval.

But Saakashvili thinks that he has nothing to apologize for, and bluntly puts the blame on the peacekeepers accusing them of inaction, and on the Ossetians for their "cunning". It is noteworthy that the shelling of Tskhinval has surprisingly coincided in time with the drafting by the Georgian parliament of a resolution calling for the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Abkhazia and South Ossetia.