Saakashvili Offers Deal to South Ossetia

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said Tbilisi will give ?a last chance? to the South Ossetian separatists in order to overcome the current crisis with peaceful means and said that Tbilisi is ready to pull out its extra troops from the conflict zone in exchange for peace.

In his special address to the nation on August 19 Mikheil Saakashvili hailed the take over of a strategic hill by Georgian troops which was previously occupied by South Ossetian militias and mercenaries.  Saakashvili said that Tbilisi is ready to let the joint peacekeeping forces, involving Georgian, Russian and Ossetian troops, monitor these areas.

He also said that the security of the Georgian villages located in the conflict zone, which have come under frequent fire over the past week, is of vital importance for Tbilisi.

?That is why we are offering the 500 Georgian peacekeepers, which are the part of joint peacekeeping troops, to be stationed in the Georgian villages. All other extra troops, which we were dispatched in the region after the deterioration of situation there, will be pulled out,? President Saakashvili said.

?We want to use every chance to solve the crisis peacefully. But this will be the last chance for peace,? Saakashvili added.

He said that Georgian Defense Minister Giorgi Baramidze, together with the Georgian peacekeepers deployed in the conflict zone, will be in charge of ensuring the security of the Georgian villages.

He said that Georgia is ready to undertake ?even the toughest measures, but these measures will be provoked only by the separatists.?

?I want to tell the Georgian people that we cannot lose in case a large-scale military confrontation is launched? Georgia has succeeded in its state-building process recently, but our enemies are unhappy about this and try to engage us in war. I am not afraid of this, but we cannot lose again,? Mikheil Saakashvili said.

He said that the takeover of the strategic hills on August 19 by the Georgian troops made it clear that Georgia is capable of defending its interests.