Strasbourg, 13 August 2008
By Lucie Dupin and Gabriela Kukuckova
Translated by Andrew Kimpson
Ossetia is located in a mountainous region and is inhabited by Georgians. As the Soviet Union collapsed in 1992 Georgia broke away from Russia, whereas the South Ossetian separatists declared their independence from Georgia and in doing so expressed their desire to be affiliated with the Russian Federation. From then on there has always been tension and conflict. The situation escalated on the 7th of August when two Georgian soldiers were supposedly killed and three were badly injured in the Ossetia region. So far there have been no independent reports on the incident. The Georgians reacted promptly with extensive air and ground assaults as they sought to “protect the sovereignty of the country.”
