The Co-chairman of JCC from the South-Ossetian side Boris Chochiev has sent a letter to the co-chairmen of JCC from the Russian, the North-Ossetian and the Georgian sides - to Juriy Popov, Murat Tkhostov and Dmitriy Mandzhavidze. In the letter, in particular, it is spoken:
«On August, 29th at 8 o"clock in the morning the georgian side has carried out the next provocation against the military men of an ossetian battalion of the peace-making forces in the zone of the georgian-ossetian conflict. Three ossetian peacemakers, following from the settlement Tsinagari on a service vehicle of JPKF, have been seized by the employees of the power structures of Georgia without any explanation of the reasons.
They have been taken violently out beyond the bounds of the zone of the conflict, to the town of Gori (Georgia). Subsequently two of them, also with application of force and without any explanation of reasons, have been sent to the town of Mtskheta.
That the georgian side completely realizes the illegitimacy of the committed by it actions, speaks also the fact, that it tried to keep the given scandalous fact in secret during three and a half hours. Thus it could not give explanations to its actions within several more hours. And only in several hours a far-fetched, false charge in the address of the seized peacemakers has followed from the georgian side.
The South-Ossetian part of JCC is compelled to ascertain regretfully, that the roughest infringement of all the international-legal norms is on hand, and also the before signed agreements within the limits of settlement of the georgian-ossetian conflict.
The given fact is not a single instance of disregard of the international legality by Georgia. So, on October, 12th, 2004 in the zone of the conflict by the special services of Georgia under the order of the president of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili (about what he has declared on November, 30th, 2004), without any explanation of the reasons had been fired point-blank the ossetian peacemakers, one of whom was lost from the received wounds that very day. The remained alive have been seized and transported to the office of the Ministry of State Security of Georgia in Tbilisi, where they were exposed to tortures, as a result of which one more of them was lost under tortures.
Despite the numerous requirements of the three parties of JCC, the murderers have not only been punished, but also have received high government awards of Georgia from the hands of Saakashvili.
We also declare, that the given crime, and also the kidnapping of the ossetian peacemakers on August, 29th are committed within the frames of the carried out by Georgia campaign on discredit of the peace-making role of Russia, are aimed to discredit the peace-making operation, to replace the peace-making forces and to unleash the next armed aggression against South Ossetia.
The South-Ossetian part of JCC resolutely demands an immediate discharge of the seized military men of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces in the zone of the georgian-ossetian conflict, being under the protection of the international law and all the complex of the international normative-legal acts, signed within the limits of the process of settlement of the georgian-ossetian conflict».
The copies of the letter are also directed to the acting Head of the Mission of OSCE in Georgia Mr. Veselin Nikolaev and the Commander of JPKF the general-major Marat Kulakhmetov.
