The information reached Novosti in a telephone interview with a staff officer of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone.
Georgia took quite a long time to agree to a pullout. An accord was reached in a Russian-Georgian top level dialogue-and only after Georgia's Interior Minister was harshly called to order. Previously, Mr. Okruashvili was blatantly shrugging off resolutions made on his country's top and by the peacekeeping commission alike, said our informant.
Georgia today trampled down all available understandings in an attempt to take Tskhinvali by storm. An artillery bombardment took three civilian lives, say preliminary reports. As fighting for the village of Tliakan was on, Georgia used Grad missile installations, though the presence of highly destructive weapons in the conflict zone is banned, pointed out our interviewee.
Russian peacekeepers are doing all they can to prevent conflict escalation. One of them, Major Orlov, was badly shell-shocked yesterday at a Georgian peacekeeping post near the village of Tamarasheni as he was trying to rescue Georgian soldiers, added the staff officer.
