Russian troops kill Georgian civilian near occupied region

10 months ago 62

Georgia said Monday (6 November) that Russian troops had killed a Georgian civilian near the breakaway South Ossetia region, controlled by Moscow forces since Russia’s 2008 invasion.

South Ossetia has been under Russia’s effective control since the brief 2008 war after which the Kremlin recognised it as an independent state.

Detentions of Georgian villagers by Russian troops — who patrol the boundary between the separatist region and Tbilisi-controlled Georgia — have sparked international condemnation.

“A Georgian citizen died as a result of shooting by the Russian occupying forces near the village of Kirbali, Gori municipality,” Georgia’s state security service said in a statement.

It added that “another Georgian citizen was illegally detained.”

A European Union monitoring mission deployed in the area since the 2008 war confirmed that “an incident occurred at the South Ossetian Administrative Boundary Line, resulting in the tragic loss of a Georgian citizen’s life.”

EUMM confirms shooting of Georgian citizen near the village of Kirbali

The EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM) confirms that an incident occurred at the South Ossetian Administrative Boundary Line, resulting in the tragic loss of a Georgian citizen's life. We extend our… pic.twitter.com/x0qKN3IG30

— EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (@EUMMGeorgia) November 6, 2023

The mission said in a statement that it condemned “in the strongest terms the use of force in any form, and express our utmost concern over the deadly shooting incident”.

Local residents told independent Pirveli TV station that the victim was a 58-year-old man who was shot at by Russian soldiers when he, along with several other villagers, went to pray in a church that Russian soldiers had denied Georgians access to earlier this year.

You see one of the problems on this map. Many of the villages have been divided by the dividing line between Georgian controlled territory and S. Ossetia without any thought to the practical matters. Here you see Kirbali is on one side and the village church on the other 👇 pic.twitter.com/rmIamBrKpu

— Alexander Kavtaradze (@alexkavtaradze_) November 6, 2023

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili said she was “profoundly outraged by the Russian occupying forces’ fatal shooting of a Georgian citizen during an unlawful arrest”.

She urged “the international community to unequivocally condemn Russia’s actions”.

Russia invaded Georgia in August 2008 after Tbilisi launched a large-scale military offensive against South Ossetian militia who were shelling Georgian villages.

Moscow at the time bombed targets across the Black Sea nation and occupied swathes of the country’s territory during the hostilities that saw Georgia’s small army routed in just five days.

Moscow then recognised South Ossetia — along with another separatist region, Abkhazia — as independent and stationed permanent military bases there.