By empty (10/18/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity said he thinks Georgia will step up what he described as provocative acts aimed at ending the Russian peacekeeping mission in the region. \"The latest steps taken by Tbilisi on South Ossetian territory, including mortar strikes at Tskhinvali, are aimed at escalating tensions and changing the format of the peacekeeping mission in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone,\" Kokoity told Interfax on Tuesday. \"Provocative acts will intensify as we approach February - the Georgian Parliament\'s date for the beginning of the final stage of the Russian peacekeeping mission,\" he said.

By empty (10/18/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Colonel General Vladimir Vasiliev (Unified Russia), the chairman of the Duma Security Committee, said on 16 October on the NTV show \"Voskresnyi vecher\" that during the recent attacks by insurgents in Nalchik the federal troops reacted better than they had in previous attacks. Army General Nikolai Kovalev, the chairman of the Duma Veterans Committee (Unified Russia), said that it is difficult to fight underground urban guerilla warfare. \"During the day these people are normal citizens, but at night they change clothes, take up hidden arms, form small mobile groups, hit their targets, and then transform into civilians,\" he said.

By empty (10/18/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Citing the 2002 law on terrorism, police in Nalchik continue to refuse to give relatives the bodies of many young men killed in the 13 October raid on Nalchik, claiming the men in question were active participants, not innocent victims. While radical Chechen field commander Shamil Basaev said on 17 October that 42 of the 217 participants are dead or missing. Interfax the same day said some 50 bodies of \"militants\" remain unidentified.