Articles | Russia 'out of Georgia by Friday'

Russia 'finds' 133 dead Ossetians

Published: Wednesday, 20 August 2008, 7:20AM

Russian officials have said they found the bodies of more than 130 civilians killed in the conflict in Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia.

The figure was well below the 2,000 toll asserted early on in the conflict by Russia to justify its overwhelming military intervention and accusations of genocide by Georgian forces.

Deputy head of the Russian Prosecutor Generals' investigative committee, Boris Salmaksov, said: "We have found 133 victims, but there are mass burial places, which we cannot open."

Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of Russia's General Staff, said 64 Russian soldiers and officers died during the conflict with 323 wounded.

Mr Salmaksov said 51 Georgian soldiers were killed.

In Tbilisi, Georgian officials said 215 people had been killed and more than 1,400 others wounded in Georgian areas outside of South Ossetia.

Russia has not formally revised its overall death toll since the start of the conflict on August 8, when Tbilisi sent troops to regain control of the pro-Moscow rebel region.

Moscow retaliated by crushing Georgian forces and sending troops deep into other parts of Georgian territory, angering the West, which said Russia's reaction was disproportionate.

Russia has said its forces will leave Georgia for positions set out under a peace plan by Friday.

President Dmitry Medvedev has told French President Nicolas Sarkozy that most Russian forces would withdraw to Russia or to South Ossetia by August 22, leaving some troops in a buffer zone around the breakaway region.