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Georgia Detains South Ossetian Officials

TBILISI, April 1, 2006 -- Georgian authorities say they have detained a South Ossetian separatist official on suspicion of smuggling cigarettes.

Vazha Khachapuridze was detained today near the village of Ergneti, in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone.

Khachapuridze is a close aide to South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity.

Also today, the South Ossetian leadership said in a statement that Georgian counterintelligence officers briefly detained Deputy Interior Minister Khazbi Guliyev on March 31. The incident took place near the Georgian town of Khashuri, where Guliyev was reportedly on a mission agreed upon with regional police.

South Ossetia forcibly won de facto independence from Georgia in the early 1990s.

(Civil Georgia, Novosti-Gruziya, Imedi TV, South Ossetian statement)

Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org