Regnum.ru
August 14, 2007
Experts from Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and USA started investigating incident in Georgian air space
http://www.regnum.ru/english/870247.html
An independent group of experts from Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and the USA started investigation of an incident in Georgian air space near the village of Tsitelubani on August 6. "It is a very competent commission that includes representatives of leading Western countries," Spokesman for the Georgian Interior Ministry Shota Utiashvili announced on air of Rustavi 2 TV-channel. He also expressed confidence that under results of the investigation the experts would draw a maximally competent and objective conclusion.
As REGNUM reported earlier, in the evening of August 6, two unidentified planes entered the Georgian air space and one of them dropped a missile near the village of Tsitelubani, but the missile failed to blow up. On August 7, Georgia accused Russia in the accident and officially claimed for data from radio location systems of August 6 from Russia. Tbilisi insists that a Russian plane flied over the Georgian border and dropped a guided missile near a radio location system in Gori District (the village of Tsitelubani). After the incident, the official Tbilisi addressed many international institutions: the EU, NATO, the UN, and the OSCE, calling them to condemn the fact of breaching the country's air space. On August 10, the UN Security Council refused to discuss the incident in Georgia citing lack of full and relevant information. Georgia announced its intention to engage specialists from Poland, the USA, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and other countries.
At the same time, on August 10 and 11, Russian peacekeepers conducted additional monitoring of the site of the accident to check accusations of the Georgian side. Georgian peacekeepers refused to participate in a new investigation after the Russian side had its own investigation and found four new eye-witnesses, who saw the planes arriving from south instead of north (the Russian side).