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Georgia starts military operations in South Ossetia

08 August 2008 08:17 (UTC +04:00)

Mamuka Kurashvili, MoD official in charge of overseeing peacekeeping operations, told journalists late on August 7 that the South Ossetian side defied the Tbilisiâ€™s decision to unilaterally cease fire and resumed shelling of the Georgian villages in the conflict zone.
"Despite our call for peace and a unilateral ceasefire separatists continued the shelling of Georgian villages," it quoted Mamuka Kurashvili as saying. "We are forced to restore constitutional order in the whole region." He did not specify the action Georgia planned to take but Tbilisi does not recognize the separatist government and has pledged to restore its control over the province. "Tskhinvali has been surrounded by Georgian forces," Georgia’s Reintegration Minister Temur Yakobashvili told Rustavi-2 TV Channel. We have decided not to return fire for a certain period of time. This move is yet another attempt by us to convince the separatists that a military confrontation is pointless,â€ Yakobashvili said. â€œMilitary confrontation may lead to many casualties, so we are ready to hold talks and defuse tensions. â€œWe are unilaterally ceasing fire, but we are doing it not because we are afraid of anyone, but because we want peace. We hope that this message will be properly received by them (the South Ossetian side), and that they will stop shelling our civilian population.â€
Asked where is separatist leader Eduard Kokoity he answered:
â€œI hope that he is there, where he should be â€“i.e in jailâ€, he said. Georgian Imedi TV Channel spread information that Georgian forces took control over Tskhinvali at 08.25 by local time.