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| Caucasus |
| Ossetians using Chechen mercs? |
| 2004-08-05 |
| The notorious 'Chechen trace' has been discovered by leaders of Ossetian armed formations among the Georgian military. The head of one of the structures of South Ossetian regime in Tskhinvali, someone named Robert Guliyev stated that Georgia allegedly uses Chechen mercenaries in the zone of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict. This report came from Moscow-based RIA-Novosti news agency (RIAN). «Today the police has reliable information that persons hired by the Georgian side to solve the Georgian-Ossetian conflict by military force were spotted in the republic of South Ossetia. There are confirmations that mercenaries from among the Kistinians, who are ethnic Chechens living in the Pankisi Gorge, are now on the territory of the republic», Guliyev said. Kavkaz Center news and information agency has addressed to Chief of External Subcommittee of Informational Council (part of State Defense Council Majlis al-Shura of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria) Movladi Udugov with the request to comment on the statement made by South Ossetian regime. «This is a pretty strange statement. It is strange not in the sense that the leaders in Tskhinvali discovered the 'Chechen trace' (these days it's being discovered all over), but in the sense that they ranked Kistinians among the mercenaries». «I don't know whether there are Kistinians among the Georgian servicemen, but even if there are, it is quite normal and natural. Kistinians are citizens of Georgia and they can surely be drafted into their country's armed forces». «This is why I did not quite understand why Tskhinvali all of a sudden decided to stress on Kistinians. If they wanted to use the so-called 'Chechen factor' for propagandistic purposes, they should have probably pointed at citizens of Chechnya and not Georgia». «Most likely, whoever making up and scribbling that story about the 'Chechen trace' got confused and came up with this kind of nonsense. But that's the matter of professionalism of those whoever makes that disinformation out there». «What's more, if right now Georgian authorities show a couple of Kistinian soldiers on TV and confirm, like, --'Yes, there are Kistinians, citizens of Georgia, in our armed forces, here they are
' — then the Tskhinvali regime and its Russian advisers will end up in even more stupid situation. After that any attempt that Moscow and Tskhinvali will be making to continue to use the 'Chechen factor' in its propaganda will be looking outright false and not seriously», Mr. Udugov commented on the statement made by the South Ossetian side. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 Even Josef Visarionivitch himself couldn't "tame" these people... |
| Posted by: borgboy 2004-08-05 7:34:21 PM |
| #1 " It just rolls off the tongue, I tell ya. Hey Dan, what are some good Caucasus blogs? I still check The Argus regularly, but a lot of others have gone silent in the last few months (Living with Caucasians, Bloggin the Stans, the Blogmenbashi). Any other suggestions? |
| Posted by: Another Dan 2004-08-05 7:23:39 PM |