UN headquarters commemorates casualties in South Ossetia

On the fortieth day after the start of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict the headquarters of the United Nations opened a show of photos presented by the leading Russian news agencies and depicting the degree of destructions in South Ossetia.

The "Caucasian Knot" reported earlier that today a three-day visit of the UN mission to Georgia and South Ossetia starts. It is supposed that it will estimate the humanitarian consequences of the warfare.

Vitaly Churkin, Russia's permanent representative at the United Nations, opened the mourning ceremony and thanked those who could not stay indifferent and came to pay tribute to the victims of the tragic events in South Ossetia. The mourning ceremony took place one hour prior to the opening of the 63rd Session of the UN General Assembly. Over 100 persons came to pay tribute to the memory of the victims: workers of the UN subdivisions, members of NGOs, and diplomats from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, China, Kirghizia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Iran, Thailand and a lot of other countries, the RIA "Novosti" reports.

The TV Channel "Vesti-24" broadcasts that Mr Churkin reminded the audience about the tragedy with the residents of South Ossetia and offered to commemorate the victims with a minute of silence.

The Russian diplomat emphasized that "we grieve over all innocently perished, irrespective of nationalities - peaceful Ossetians, Georgians and other nationals of this multinational land."

Following the Christian tradition, residents of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, have also paid tribute to the memory of the victims of the tragedy in the South Ossetia, which happened 40 days ago.