TBILISI. May 20 (Interfax) - The European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia on Thursday welcomed the release by the South Ossetian authorities of five Georgian civilian captives.
Four of those released were detained in the course of a shootout near the Georgian-South Ossetian border on Wednesday. The fifth one had been arrested several days before.
"The EU Monitoring Mission deplores the serious shooting incident that took place on 18 May close to the South Ossetian Administrative Boundary Line, in which two Georgian civilians were wounded, one of whom is in a critical condition," the mission said in a statement.
"Once the Mission was informed of the incident, it responded by sending patrols to the vicinity to gather information about what had happened," it said.
It also called a meeting to discuss the incident. The meeting "took place [on Thursday] in [the village of] Dvani with representatives from the Georgian Government, the Russian Federation and de facto South Ossetian authorities" being present, the mission said.
Meanwhile, the Georgian government qualified the incident, which occurred in the Sachkhere district, as an extremely gross violation of the ceasefire and claimed that five local villagers had come under gunfire from the South Ossetian side.