Brussels, 31/08/2012 (Agence Europe) - Michael Mann, the spokesman for EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, announced on Thursday 30 August that the European External Action Service (EEAS) is greatly concerned by the situation in Georgia further to the death of three members of the Georgian police force and 11 members of an armed group from Dagestan (Russia), during a confrontation the day before. The spokesman expressed great concern, underlining that they are closely monitoring the situation and working with the authorities to ascertain what exactly happened. “We haven't sent monitors into the region where the incident took place”, Mann explained, adding that the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia has a mandate for acting in the border zone with Ossetia and Abkhazia, but not for intervention in that region.
The same day, the Georgian interior minister said that the main phase of the special operation against the armed group has come to an end. He said that most of the members of the group are “Russian citizens of North Caucasus”. The group is said to be close to Islamist separatists from Dagestan. Nodar Kharshiladze, Georgia's Deputy Interior Minister, believes this was the “worst incident” since the Russian-Georgian war in 2008. (CG/transl.jl)