Georgian MIA demands money for releasing hostages

Mikhail Mindzayev, South Ossetia Minister of Internal Affairs, has disclosed to the "Caucasian Knot" the names of the two Russian citizens who are currently held as hostages by the Georgian power authorities. They were detained on May 27, 2006, near the village of Khelchua at the beginning of the Georgian MSS "secret operation" against the civil population.

The Minister has also reported that the Georgian MIA demands from the relatives of the kidnapped persons 5000 lari each (about US$3000).

The plans to kidnap the hostages were made without the knowledge of the local Georgian police

"The updated information confirms that the capture of hostages in the Georgia-Ossetia conflict zone has been carefully planned by the Georgian secret services and aimed at destabilization of the situation," reports Robert Mamitov, official representative of the RSO Unified Press-centre.

Citing the statements of the released hostages, he has informed the "Caucasian Knot" that the equipment, firearms and training of the participants of the kidnapping evidences the participation in the punitive operation of the former Georgian MSS which, as a result of reforming the power authorities in Georgia, was formally subordinated to the Georgian MIA.

"The fact that the operation was executed by officers of the former MSS is also confirmed by an initial categorical denial by the leadership of the Georgian law enforcement and administrative agencies of the fact of taking hostages. It seems that they have simply not been informed. Additionally, most persons arrested were brought to the building of the former Georgian MSS department in Gori," representatives of the Committee on Information of South Ossetia report to the "Caucasian Knot." They have noted that "several groups of participants in the kidnapping were formed on the nationality principle. In one of the groups, the special task force officers in masks were communicating between themselves in the Kistin dialect of the Chechen language, and in the other one, in the Mingrelian dialect. Officers of the local units of the Georgian police have been blocked from participation in the operation."

One of the released hostages has been cited to say that, after he and his fellow-travellers were taken off the transport facility in the Georgian village of Eredvi, a local resident who was an officer of the Eredvi unit of the Georgian police tried to protect him from beating. This caused a negative reaction of the special task force commander who ordered his subordinates to disarm the policeman. Then he was put into the task force car and carried to an unknown place.

According to the information received by the RSO Unified Press-centre from officers of the local Georgian police units, there were former officers of the "White Legion" which had formerly been operating in Abkhazia in the Georgian special task force.