MOSCOW. Jan 14 (Interfax-AVN) - A 17-member delegation from the U.S. Congress will travel to the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone on Saturday on a fact-finding mission, minister without portfolio of the self-proclaimed republic of South Ossetia Boris Chochiyev told Interfax-Military News Agency from Tskhinvali on Friday.
"We expect to make an objective picture of the developments here known to the whole world with the help of the visitors," he said.
"The truth is that Georgia is interested in solving the problem of South Ossetia through the use of force. The latest manifestation of such intentions was this week's visit of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to a camp of reservists in Dzevera in the Gori district, several kilometers away from Tskhinvali, in the responsibility zone of the Joint Peacekeeping Force," Chochiyev said.
The peacekeepers' commander Major General Marat Kulakhmetov expressed a readiness to allow the U.S. delegation to see the operations of the peacekeepers who have been deployed in the conflict zone since 1992.
South Ossetia is legally a province of Georgia, but a conflict in the 1990s led to its de facto independence. Tensions between Tbilisi and Tskhinvali have escalated in recent months, as Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has stepped up efforts to restore control over South Ossetia.