Georgia Releases Russian Officers

(RFE/RL) 10 February 2006 -- Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili said today that three Russian military officers detained by the police on 8 February had been released and given 24 hours to leave the country.
The three men were arrested in Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia for entering the country without passports.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on 9 February that the men were in South Ossetia to investigate the recent seizure of a Russian military truck by the Georgian police after it crashed into a civilian car.

Okruashvili said the Russians had been handed over to observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in South Ossetia.

(Rustavi-2, Civil Georgia, AP)

Human Rights In Georgia

Human Rights In Georgia

Georgia's police have been accused of using excessive force (official site)


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'CULTURE OF IMPUNITY':Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's government has had a checkered human rights record since it came to power after the 2003 Rose Revolution. The international community has welcomed the steps taken by the new Georgian leaders to refine the legal mechanisms needed to combat rights abuses. But it also blames the government for failing to ensure those mechanisms are properly implemented....(more)


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