Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said that arms, which the Georgian forces confiscated in South Ossetia on July 7, will not be retuned back to South Ossetia.
“We are ready to return these weapons to Russia. I offered Mr. Putin [the Russian President] during the phone conversation [on July 9] that we can deliver these arms at Larsi border checkpoint [Russo-Georgian border], we even tried to handover these arms to the Headquarters of Group of Russian Troops in Trans Caucasus [which located in Tbilisi], but Russians refused. They want these arms in South Ossetia. Our response is: no arms in South Ossetia,” President Saakashvili said at a specially convened news briefing on July 10.
July 7, Georgian peacekeepers deployed in the South Ossetian conflict zone seized nine trucks belonging to Russian peacekeepers that were loaded with arms, ammunition and uniforms. According to the Georgian side, the convoy of trucks, carrying “unauthorized weapon,” came from Russia and were en route to Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway South Ossetian republic.
Eventually, only two trucks, which were loaded with arms, including 300 unguided missiles, were brought to Tbilisi by the Georgian side, other trucks with uniforms were returned to the Russian peacekeepers. Russia claims arms were dispatched to South Ossetia for the Russian peacekeeping troops stationed in the conflict zone.
Georgian President also said that the South Ossetian side offered Tbilisi to return arms to South Ossetia in exchange of release of three Georgians detained by the separatist forces on July 8.
“But we do not exchange arms on persons. We will not tolerate presence of arms in South Ossetia,” Mikheil Saakashvili added.
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