Pilot Valery Malkov, who was shot above Gori, is treated in hospital, Tbilisi, August 18, 2008.
Photo: Vasily Shaposhnikov
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Georgia Miscalculated Prisoners of War
Russia and Georgia exchanged the war prisoners yesterday. Five servicemen of Russia and 15 of Georgia were able to return home. Official Tbilisi says Russia hasn’t delivered all prisoners of war and the issue with South Ossetians from volunteer corps is yet to be sorted out. Being not military, those people weren’t exchanged.
The “all for all” exchange of war prisoners happened near Igoeti-village, 35km from Tbilisi, and the International Red Cross was the intermediary. Russia returned 15 prisoners to get five from Georgia, including two pilots, who had been shot by Georgian missile defense systems over Gori.
But the exchange wasn’t smooth at all. Official Tbilisi was displeased to find only 14 names in the list and Shota Utiashvili from Georgia’s Foreign Ministry insisted there should be 80, judging by the words of General Vyacheslav Borisov.
“But if you have this list for 80 people, give it to us for checking. You are so well-informed, where have you obtained this name-by-name information?” Russia’s General Staff Deputy Chief Anatoly Nogovitsyn rebuffed yesterday.
According to Georgia’s State Minister for Reintegration Timur Yakobashvili, who negotiated the exchange of war prisoners, the matter at stake wasn’t the military (there could be two or three of them left) but rather hundreds of Georgian residents of South Ossetia. The minister said they were detained and are kept in the concentration camp, which Russia’s and Ossetian military arranged in once Georgian village Tamarasheni.
In Utiashvili’s interpretation, the Russians have roughly 200 civilians in addition to dozens of servicemen. The civilians were abducted and Ossetians want ransom for some of them, offering to relatives to pay or secure the release of an Ossetian. Georgia holds captive some Ossetians as well, Utiashvili said without giving the exact number but specifying that there were less than a hundred of them.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 20, 2008
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