The Georgian government has blamed Russia for a March 29 car explosion near the border with breakaway South Ossetia that killed one police officer and injured four others. In March 30 statements, both the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) stated that the attack appeared to be deliberate, and underlined the need for enhanced security measures.
Badri Jaoshvili, an officer with the Interior Ministry's Special Task Force, died from his injuries shortly after his car hit a mine near the village of Dvani, in Georgian-controlled territory. The EUMM stated that a second explosion targeted "the people coming to help the victims of the first one."
EUMM head Ambassador Hanjörg Haber described the incident as an "unacceptable breach of the Sarkozy-Medvedev Agreements" and called for swift implementation of the Incident Prevention Mechanism approved at the last round of Geneva talks.
The Special Representative of the Greek Chairperson-in-Office of the OSCE, Ambassador Charalampos Christopoulos, has stated that the "deliberately targeted attack" underlines the "importance of the presence of the OSCE Military Observers who are able to monitor such incidents and credibly report on them."
The Georgian Foreign Affairs Ministry has called for the international community to respond to what it describes as a series of terrorist acts against Georgian policemen, Georgian television reported. Since October 2008 as many as 14 Georgians, including 12 policemen, have been killed in the border areas near South Ossetia and the breakaway region of Abkhazia, the ministry reports.