Never taken aback, the First Lady boarded a helicopter to make her trip at all cost, reports the Tbilisi-based Imedi television. It is unclear whether the star team is with her. At any rate, a copter has taken a Tbilisi news crew to the village Tamarasheni, where they are waiting for the unyielding Sandra, says the Rustavi 2 television.
South Ossetian police insisted on her giving up the visit for safety reasons, adds Novosti/Georgia news agency.
"Russian peacekeepers in the Georgian-Osset conflict zone are willing to guarantee Sandra Roelofs' safety-but, even despite that, we could not come to terms with local officers," Georgi Ugulava, Georgian Deputy State Security Minister, who was accompanying her, said to newsmen.
"I did not even try to talk Sandra into giving up her trip to the Tskhinvali Region [downgrading Georgian official name for South Ossetia] - I knew from the start nothing would come of it. She would have her way," sighed President Saakashvili as he was addressing the media in Tbilisi.
Other information he offered was more reassuring. Works are on to restore regular Tbilisi-Tskhinvali trains. Offices will open in the Tskhinvali environs next week to pay local seniors Georgian pensions, and national television Channel One is starting Osset-language information coverage today.
