We have one item on the agenda today - the criminal incidents and the criminal situation as a whole in the Tskhinvali region. It is absolutely clear that with the coming of summer, the criminal gangs, which have been operating in this region for many years have become active. They have committed several serious crimes already - the attack on the police, other crimes about which we have undeniable information and the kidnapping of our citizens.

We know exactly who has done all this, we have documentary evidence. I want everyone to know that we will definitely find these people and hold them to account.

In Georgia as a whole the criminal situation has improved markedly, everyone can see that crime is decreasing, stability is being created. No stable, democratic state can tolerate a criminal enclave on its territory.

At the same time, those who do not want Georgia to be successful desperately hope they will be able to stage some kind of provocation. In no circumstances should we allow ourselves to be dragged into wide scale confrontation, especially at this stage.

Nevertheless, I have ordered everyone, the Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor-General's office, to investigate each incident. Everyone should understand, on every side, that it is essential to begin talks immediately in order to examine the wide-ranging and very comprehensive peace plan that we proposed.

We need peaceful talks, we are addressing the OSCE. We have a conference planned in Batumi in July on the issue of peace and the settlement of the conflict in this region.

I repeat, we are open to dialogue, but Georgia will not tolerate this kind of criminal free for all. I, as a president, will not allow it. It is now up to local groups and forces to decide. We want to see a legal and exclusively peaceful way out of the very unfortunate situation, which has developed there in the past few days.

This translation is published with permission from BBC Monitoring, Reading, UK

Communications Office
of the President of Georgia