The Foreign Ministry of the unrecognized Republic of South Ossetia issued a statement on 31 January implicating Georgia in the recent murder of a local resident. South Ossetian members of the Joint Control Commission tasked with monitoring the situation in the South Ossetian conflict zone issued an analogous condemnation the same day. The Ossetian side claims the dead man was abducted on 26 January in the Georgian village of Kekhvi, close to a Georgian police post, brutally beaten, and then publicly executed. Local Georgian officials say he froze to death. On 1 February, South Ossetian President Kokoity accused Georgia of deploying 500 servicemen to the conflict zone later on 31 January with the aim of provoking an armed clash with the Russian peacekeeping contingent there. (Caucasus Press)