20 August 2008, 12:06
Investigatory Committee counts 133 lost peaceful residents of South Ossetia
133 persons from among civilian population of South Ossetia have been recognized as casualties of the Georgian aggression. This is the official figure announced today by Boris Salmaksov, deputy head of the Investigatory Committee at the Russian Prosecutor's Office for the South Federal District.
The Investigatory Committee asserts that apart from these 133 victims many burial places have not been studied yet. "133 casualties have been recorded, but we have numerous burial places, which we cannot open," the "Interfax" quotes Mr Salmaksov as saying.
According to updated information of South-Ossetian authorities, the attack of Georgia took away lives of 1492 residents of South Ossetia. The figure includes the victims in Tskhinvali and its suburbs, the RIA "Novosti" reports.
According to the data presented by Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Deputy Chief of the Joint Staff of Russian Armed Forces, under updated information, the warfare in South Ossetia took away the lives of 64 Russian peacekeepers. Besides, 323 wounded and contused militaries were registered; there were no disappearances.
On August 19, the Georgian party also reported its losses: in the warfare the country lost 215 persons, 1469 more were wounded. Among them, 13 employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia were killed and over 200 wounded. Losses among servicemen of the Ministry of Defence have made 133 casualties and 1199 wounded. 70 militaries are considered as missing, and 7 bodies are still unidentified.
Besides, 69 persons were lost and 61 wounded from among the peaceful population. These figures were made public by Givi Targamadze, chairman of the parliamentary committee for defence and state security.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has specified the number of persons displaced in the course of the conflict in South Ossetia. They are already 158,000, and all of them need humanitarian aid, the UN News Centre reports.
