Translated material
After "Rainbow"
Georgia is looking for traces of a plane in the north
Georgia yesterday released preliminary data from the investigation into the incident on August 6, when a rocket fell to the ground near the village of Tsitelubani in the Gori region . The Georgian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that “a Russian-made tactical anti-radar guided missile of the Rainbow X-58 type was dropped.” The Georgian Foreign Ministry claims that “the shot was fired from a Russian-made Su-24 military aircraft that entered Georgian airspace from Russia.” The Georgian army does not have such aircraft and missiles in service, Tbilisi assures, refuting suspicions that Georgia itself staged a provocation.Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said that Tbilisi demands to convene an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the incident, and decided to create an international expert group that will be provided with “irrefutable data” against Russia. “The civil aviation radar readings coincide with the data provided by the Ministry of Defense, which is further support for our statements that the planes entered Georgian territory from the north,” Mr. Bezhuashvili said. He said that “a mixed group with the participation of OSCE representatives and Russian experts actually confirmed the fact that the planes actually flew in from the north.”
The commander of the Mixed Peacekeeping Forces in the zone of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, Major General Marat Kulakhmetov, suggested not rushing to conclusions. “We will work together with OSCE representatives until the picture is completely clear in order to avoid misunderstandings,” he told Vremya Novostey. - In Tsitelubani there is only a rocket hole. And we need to determine where the plane came from and the order of its actions over the conflict zone. According to our data, we are talking about one aircraft (Georgia reported two Su-24s on Tuesday - Ed. ). And there is only one missile so far, but it is possible that there will be another one in the mountains near the village of Gromi (controlled by South Ossetia - Ed. ). We are looking, but it is difficult to find. We ask the local population about everything and cooperate with the law enforcement agencies of the parties.” Yesterday, Reuters reported, citing sources in Tbilisi, that the missile was not launched at a specific target, but was simply dropped from a Russian bomber that allegedly came under fire in the skies over South Ossetia.
Georgia has already received support from overseas partners. US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza said: “Of course, we condemn any attack on the sovereign territory of Georgia. We can't say who did what here. We have no indication that Georgia opened fire on itself. That's for sure. This kind of rhetoric, claiming that Georgia attacked itself, is not at all useful. It increases the tension."
“Moscow is extremely concerned about the incident and views it as an attempt to disrupt emerging trends in Russian-Georgian relations, as well as to aggravate the situation in the settlement of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement about yesterday’s telephone conversation between Deputy Head of the Department Grigory Karasin and the First Deputy Minister Foreign Affairs of Georgia Nikoloz Vashakidze. On Smolenskaya Square they emphasized that Moscow is not inclined to anticipate the results of the investigation into the incident.
Yesterday, the head of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity, expressed his readiness to meet with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and sign a memorandum on the non-use of force. “Out of respect for the Georgian people, I would like to once again state my desire to meet at the highest level with the President of Georgia and give guarantees to both the Ossetian and Georgian people about the non-resumption of hostilities. The people must take a breath. Nobody needs war here, we are tired of this war,” said Eduard Kokoity at a meeting with the elders.
Today a meeting of the Joint Control Commission (JCC) on the Georgian-Ossetian settlement was supposed to take place in Tbilisi. But the Tskhinvali delegation, citing a lack of security guarantees, refused to travel to the Georgian capital. Ambassador of the Russian Foreign Ministry, co-chairman of the JCC Yuri Popov held a meeting with colleagues on the commission from North and South Ossetia on Wednesday in Tskhinvali. Upon its completion, the co-chairman of the JCC from South Ossetia, Minister of Special Affairs Boris Chochiev, told Vremya Novostei: “Our delegation is ready to consider the possibility of participating in a meeting in Tbilisi in the second half of September with international security guarantees.” Mr. Chochiev also told our newspaper that the Georgian side is preparing assassination attempts on him and the Minister of Internal Affairs of South Ossetia, Mikhail Mindzaev. “Now we are heavily guarded,” said our interlocutor.