Date of trial of Georgian teenagers detained in South Ossetia still unknown

November 9 was to be the starting day of the trial in South Ossetia of four Georgian teenagers, detained by local power agents; however, the trial was uncertainly postponed.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Georgiy Romelashvili and Aleko Sabadze, both 14, Victor Buchukuri, 16, and Levan Khmiadashvili, 17, disappeared, according to the Georgian party, at midday on November 4 from the territory controlled by the Georgian party.

The "Novye Izvestia" writes that on November 9 one of the teenagers was also suspected of committing a theft in Kheiti village, Tskhinvali District.

Yesterday, the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the international community to take measures for releasing the teenagers. A special "support group" consisting of Christian Democrats and public activists of Georgia went to Tirdznisi to meet the guys' parents.

Georgiy Targamadze, Chairman of the Christian Democratic Movement, told journalists that it was necessary to strain utmost efforts not to admit psychological pressure on the detained teenagers; two of them have health problems.

Today, President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili plans to hold a telephone conversation with US Vice-President Joseph Baiden on releasing the teenagers.

Yesterday, Grigol Vashadze, Georgian Foreign Minister, expressed his doubts that the trial would take place. According to his version, the teenagers were tortured.

However, the website of the Ministry for Press and Mass Communications of the Republic of South Ossetia (RSO) published a refutation of these Vashadze's words, running that "the boys feel OK, and no physical and psychological pressure" was applied to them. Their photos were placed, in which they look sound and healthy.

It is also reported that the teenagers were visited by representatives of the Tskhinvali Office of the International Red Cross Committee, who had a chance to talk to the detainees. The boys said that were normal and no physical or psychological methods of pressure were applied to them.

Political scientist Paata Zakareishvili, a member of the oppositional Republican Party of Georgia, has named the whole story with detention of schoolboys "strange" and said it needs a "serious investigation into all its real circumstances." He explains the recent frequent cases of detaining Georgian citizens, mainly those who live in Georgian villages close to the conflict zone, by Tskhinvali's desire to demonstrate to Tbilisi and the whole world that "its intention to control the territory is serious, and that crossing the border 'in the light regime', as before, is excluded."

The RES South-Ossetian Information Agency reports with reference to Boris Chochiev, plenipotentiary envoy of the RSO, that relatives of missing and kidnapped Ossetians are against delivery of the detained teenagers to the Georgian party.

Mr Chochiev assets that "the 14 citizens of South Ossetia who disappeared and were kidnapped after August 8, 2008, are still in the territory of Georgia"; however, Tbilisi refutes this information.