NO BOSNIAN NATIONALS WERE KILLED IN CONFLICT BETWEEN GEORGIA AND RUSSIA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (August 12,2008) - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Georgia has informed Bosnia that no Bosnian nationals suffered injuries or were killed in Ossetia conflict between Georgia and Russia,the Bosnian Foreign Affairs Ministry said.

The Bosnian Embassy in Turkey informed the Bosnian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed no Bosnia nationals were victims in conflicts in Georgia, stating that all further information will be communicated through diplomatic channels via Bosnian Embassy in Turkey which covers Georgia non-residentially.

Georgia's president, Mikheil Saakashvili, has vowed not to surrender as Russian troops press deeper into his country.He says the capital Tbilisi is being threatened, and the majority of Georgia's territory is occupied.

President Saakashvili, accuses Russia of premeditating the attack, which began several days ago in South Ossetia.

Russian forces have pushed further into Georgia, moving briefly into the western city of Senaki, to destroy a military base.

Georgia claimed Russian soldiers had also occupied Gori, a key city linking the western and eastern parts of the country, but officials now say Russian troops are stationed nearby.

The UN refugee agency says that 80 percent of the 50,000 population of Gori has fled.

Russian forces also entered Georgia's Black Sea port of Poti, in what Moscow described as a reconnaissance mission.

In an address to the nation, Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili said the majority of Georgia's territory is occupied.

The war between Georgia and South Ossetia, until recently labeled a “frozen conflict,” stretches back to the early 1990s, when South Ossetia and another separatist region, Abkhazia, gained de facto independence from Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The region settled into a tenuous peace monitored by Russian peacekeepers, but frictions with Georgia increased sharply in 2004, when Saakashvili was elected.

The trigger for the fresh escalation began last weekend, when South Ossetia accused Georgia of firing mortars into the enclave after six Georgian policemen were killed in the border area by a roadside bomb. As tensions grew, South Ossetia began sending women and children out of the enclave. The refugee crisis intensified Friday as relief groups said thousands of refugees, mostly women and children, were streaming across the border into the North Caucasus city of Vladikavkaz in Russia.

Russia has said the conflict has killed 1,500 people and the death toll is expected to rise.

Georgian troops began a military action against South Ossetia's forces last week in an attempt to re-establish control over the region. In response, the Russian aggressor moved into the region and attacked the Georgian forces.
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