GEORGIA: Georgian troops and soldiers from the breakaway South Ossetia region were last night hunting alleged provocateurs whom both sides blamed for attempting to ignite civil war in the Caucasus nation.
At least three Georgian soldiers died in pro-Russian South Ossetia yesterday trying to maintain a crumbling peace in the province, which claimed de facto independence from the government in Tbilisi after bitter fighting in 1992. They were the latest to die in nightly exchanges of gun, mortar and artillery fire over the past week.
Georgia, South Ossetia and Russia all blamed a band of a few dozen irregular fighters for persistently breaking the ceasefire in the province, which is largely pro-Russian and where Moscow has its own peace-keeping force.
"There is a well-prepared armed group of about 15-20 people in the conflict zone - the South Ossetian side agrees with this. During the night they shoot at positions of both sides, trying to provoke all-out war," said Georgian Defence Minister Mr Georgy Baramidze.
Russia urged the skirmishing sides to work together to capture or kill these "mercenaries", but chances of co-operation between Georgia and South Ossetia receded after they accused each other of unleashing these paramilitary-style units.
"There is a third side that wants war and we must neutralise them together with Russian peacekeepers," said South Ossetian official Mr Boris Chochiyev.
Georgia's Foreign Minister, Ms Salome Zurabichvili, claimed that South Ossetia was allowing Cossacks to cross into the region from neighbouring southern Russia and launch raids on Georgian positions.
Several commentators suspect influential, Russia-linked criminal groups, who run lucrative smuggling operations in South Ossetia, of destabilising the region to prevent any change in its status. Georgia has vowed to crush smuggling and corruption if it re-establishes control over the South Ossetia.
"Only contraband has kept the (South Ossetian) regime functioning, and without the resumption of smuggling there can be no lasting ceasefire," wrote defence analyst Mr Pavel Felgenhauer.
Moscow is keen to maintain its historical influence over Georgia, which has adopted a strongly pro-Western stance and where the United States is funding construction of a major oil pipeline and has also trained Tbilisi's troops.
"A good start would be an active role for the international community - specifically the United States, European Union and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe - in high-level negotiations among the parties directly involved," Georgian President Mr Mikhail Saakashvili, a US-educated lawyer, wrote this week.
But Russian Foreign Minister Mr Sergei Lavrov rejected calls for international monitors to be sent into South Ossetia.