Opposition Slams Government over South Ossetia

During debates at the parliamentary session on September 16 the opposition accused the Georgian authorities of conducting an ?uncoordinated? and ?unsuccessful? operation in breakaway South Ossetia in August, wherein clashes between the South Ossetian and Georgian forces erupted in the separatist region.

The parliamentary debates were initiated by the Rightist Opposition faction, which demanded that the authorities unveil the exact number of Georgian soldiers killed during the clashes, as well as to inform the MPs how much was allocated from the state budget for the military operations in August.

Interior Minister Irakli Okruashvili, who was summoned by the Parliament, said at the session that a total of 17 Georgian servicemen were killed during the clashes. Initially, reports regarding the number of casualties were conflicting. Earlier the Georgian Healthcare Ministry announced that 19 people were killed during week-long skirmishes in the South Ossetian region of Georgia, while the State Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues Goga Khaindrava said in late August that the Georgian side lost 16 servicemen.

However, the Interior Minister left the session without answering questions regarding funds spent during the operation.

Clashes in breakaway South Ossetia erupted in early August. On August 19, Georgian troops captured strategic heights overlooking the separatist region?s capital Tskhinvali; however the Georgian authorities handed over these heights to the joint peacekeeping troops on the same day and started pulling out of its non-peacekeeping troops from the conflict zone.

Non-partisan opposition MP Koba Davitashvili said at the session that the government?s decision to sack Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Givi Iukuridze and their decision to merge the Internal Troops with the Defense Ministry ?revealed that the activities by the authorities were not coordinated.?