Three policemen injured in Dvani explosion

Three Georgian policemen were injured in an explosion near the administrative border with South Ossetia on the morning of September 24.

The incident occurred while a Georgian police pickup vehicle was patrolling. According to the region’s police department the blast was caused by a remote controlled bomb containing 20 kilogrammes of TNT. The police also report that the blast was preceded by “intensive fire” in the direction of the patrolling vehicle. The Georgian law enforcers in the pickup were lightly injured and their lives are not in danger, said a regional police spokesperson.

The blast occurred on the day of the meeting of Georgian, Russian and South Ossetian separatist representatives in Ergneti village. Those present said that the Dvani explosion was one of the topics discussed at this meeting. It has been announced that the sides have agreed to investigate the incident.

The meeting in Ergneti was the fifth Incident Prevention Mechanism meeting. The previous four had not produced any serious results, however all sides state that the continuation of these negotiations is necessary and productive.

The Head of the EU Monitoring Mission (EUMM), Ambassador Hansjorg Haber, commenting before the meeting, stated that the Dvani blast was “a serious incident.” “It has been relatively quiet in this region recently, and now EU monitors are at the location [Dvani] studying the details of this incident,” stated Haber on September 24. A day earlier the EUMM chief had noted that “on the ground, the situation has been relatively calm, including in the week before the first anniversary of the outbreak of the war, when one major incident was reported both by Tbilisi and Tskhinvali. The rhetorical exchanges in the media depicted a much tenser situation than the one we registered on the ground.”

The EU monitors have stepped up their activity prior to the results of the EU Commission chaired by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini, which is investigating the causes of the August war, being published. “The publication of the Tagliavini report, which we expect at the end of this month, will of course be a very important event. We do not know the content of this report. We have not contributed to the investigation nor to the drafting of the report, as we were not on the ground when the war broke out or even when the August 12 and September 8 agreements were concluded. As for the effects of the publication on the ground, I am optimistic that the end of the month will pass just as calmly as the anniversary of the outbreak of war on August 7. In any case, however, the mission will reinforce its patrolling activities to be able to effectively counter any emerging tension,” underlined Hansjorg Haber, as quoted by the EUMM press service, on Thursday.