Russian security in clashes with Georgians over traffic incident

(1 Feb 2006)
+++ NIGHT SHOTS +++
1. Wide shot people standing by truck after the accident
2. Close up of people standing by truck
3. Mid shot APC (armoured personnel carrier) pulling up with Russian peacekeepers walking alongside
4. Mid shot Russian peacekeeper talking to Georgian policeman
5. Mid shot scuffle
6. SOUNDBITE (Georgian) Michael Kareli, President's envoy to Shida Kartli region:
"They (Russian peacekeepers) really think that are serving in one of the Russian provinces. Very soon we will show the world when we kick out of Georgia all Russians."
7. Wide shot people and at soldiers standing beside truck
STORYLINE:
Fistfights broke out after Georgian police officers tried to impound a Russian peacekeepers' truck involved in a traffic accident near the Tkviavi village in breakaway South Ossetia in the early hours of Wednesday.
The truck rammed into a local Georgian resident's sedan on Tuesday evening, shattering a headlight and denting the car but no one was injured.
When police tried to take the truck to a local station to administer a fine, the peacekeepers radioed for help from their comrades, who arrived in armoured personnel carriers and got into fistfights with police.
Shots were fired into the air to stop the clashes.
South Ossetia has run its own affairs since breaking away from central government control in an 18-month war that ended in 1992.
South Ossetia and another separatist province, Abkhazia, have close ties with Moscow, which has granted Russian citizenship to many of their residents.
Russian peacekeepers have been deployed to both regions since the early 1990s.
Georgia repeatedly has accused them of siding with separatists.

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