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Firing near convoy of Georgian leader
Gunfire broke out on Monday on the South Ossetian de facto border after a convoy carrying the Georgian and Polish presidents approached, forcing them to turn back, officials said.
- Agencies
- Published: 23:35 November 24, 2008
Tbilisi: Gunfire broke out on Monday on the South Ossetian de facto border after a convoy carrying the Georgian and Polish presidents approached, forcing them to turn back, officials said.
Georgia and Russia, which fought a five-day war in August, accused each other of provocation over the incident.
"Frankly I didn't expect Russians to open fire. I thought they clearly saw that this was an official cortege, this was a high delegation," Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said, speaking in English in comments broadcast on BBC World Service radio.
"Clearly it was intended as a provocation, certainly I would never intend to put the life of the president of Poland in danger, that was none of my intention but the reality is that you know you are dealing with unpredictable people," he added.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who is accompanying President Dmitry Medvedev on a trip to Latin America, shrugged off Georgian accusations.
"This is a clear provocation," he told reporters in the Peruvian capital Lima. "It is not the first time they are doing so. They are organising the provocation and then blame the Russian side."
Strong denial
"Inviting the [Polish] president to Tbilisi and then taking him for a car ride to a different country - isn't that a provocation?" he added.
Lavrov stopped short of accusing Tbilisi of setting up the shooting incident, but denied any Russian responsibility.
"There was no shooting from either the Russian or the Ossetian side," he said.
A spokeswoman for Saakashvili said that Russian troops manning a checkpoint on the de facto border opened fire when the convoy approached.
The spokeswoman was not present at the scene, just south of the town of Akhalgori. A witness travelling with Saakashvili told Reuters that uniformed men who appeared to be South Ossetians fired shots into the air when officials began getting out of their cars.
Both Russia and South Ossetia strongly denied involvement.
Shaky television pictures were inconclusive. Automatic gunfire could be heard but it was unclear where from. No one was hurt and the convoy turned back.
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