10 October 2005, 19:22
Azeris claim to be persecuted in Georgia
On Monday, ten servicemen of a military unit in the Dedoplistskaro district in Eastern Georgia deserted the unit, arrived in Tbilisi, and asked the ombudsman for help.
The privates, ethnic Azeris, came to Ombudsman Sozar Subari in the morning, complaining of their fellow servicemen and maintaining that they had been humiliated and battered, the staff for the People's Defender of Georgia (Ombudsman) told Interfax.
The ombudsman's staff accepted the complaint and is to investigate the case, Regnum news agency says. The Georgian Defence Ministry has not yet commented on this incident.