Tskhinval remembers August 2008 tragedy victims.

TSKHINVAL, August 8 (Itar-Tass) -- People in Tskhinval lit candles
half an hour before midnight Friday to remember the victims of the August
2008 armed conflict in South Ossetia.

The event called Commemoration Candle began with a bell peal, followed
by a video recording of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's address
of a year ago in which he assured South Ossetia of his good will and which
preceded the Georgian aggression.

.8,000 candles lit by Christ the Saviour Cathedral to remember
SOssetia war.

MOSCOW, August 8 (Itar-Tass) -- Eight thousand young men and women lit
candles outside Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour on Friday night
and observed a minute of silence in memory of Russian peacekeepers, army
servicemen and civilians in South Ossetia who died at the hands of
Georgian aggressors in August 2008.
"The crimes of the [Georgian President Mikhail] Saakashvili regime can
neither be forgiven nor forgotten," one of the leaders of the Young Guard
of United Russia, Andrei Tatarinov, said.
"Our country responded adequately to the criminal aggression when
Supreme Commander-in-Chief Dmitry Medvedev issued an order to come to the
rescue of our peacekeepers, defend Russian citizens and peaceful residents
of South Ossetia. It was the only correct and adequate response," he said.
"Those days will forever remain in our memory, and we are glad that
the peoples of South Ossetia and Abkhazia are under the protection of our
arms," Tatarinov said.

.Commemorative event marking SOssetia conflict anniversary held in
Sukhum.

SUKHUM, August 8 (Itar-Tass) -- The Commemoration Candle event was
held in Abkhazia's capital of Sukhum on Friday to remember last year's
armed conflict in South Ossetia.
The event was organised by the United Abkhazia party and the youth
organisation Young Abkhazia.
The theatre square on Sukhum's embankment was crowded as local
residents and visiting Russians lit candles and observed a minute of
silence in memory of the victims of the Georgian aggression in August 2008.
United Abkhazia leader Daur Tarba said, "On the anniversary of the
aggressive armed action committed by Georgia against the Republic of South
Ossetia, the brotherly Abkhazian people expresses solidarity and support
to the people of South Ossetia in securing its legitimate right to decent
peaceful life."
Sukhum City Administration Head Alias Labakhua, "[Georgian President]
Mikhail Saakashvili committed a crime against humanity and should be
punished sooner or later".

.Russia does not rule out UN role in Caucasus if new realities
respected.

UNITED NATIONS, August 8 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia does not rule out a
U.N. role in the Caucasus if the new political reality that has emerged
there is not upset, Russian Permanent Representative to the U.N. Vitaly
Churkin said.
He noted that Russian diplomats are discussing this issue with the
U.N. Secretariat and other interested parties.
"Indeed, we envision a role for the U.N. personnel in the mechanism
created for the prevention of conflicts and in the Geneva talks where the
military and humanitarian situation is discussed both in the
Georgian-Abkhazian and the Georgian-South Ossetian contexts. This is why
we hope that even after October 1 [the U.N. Observer Mission in Georgia
should be closed by that date], the U.N. Mission will continue in such a
way as to avoid encroachments on the new political reality in the region.
And the reality is that two new states - Abkhazia and South Ossetia - have
emerged there," Churkin told Itar-Tass on the eve of the first anniversary
of the armed conflict in the Caucasus.
He said Russia and its colleagues in the U.N. Security Council tried
to extend the mandate of the U.N. Observer Mission in Georgia that was
established during the Georgian-Abkhazian war of 1993.
"Russia and Abkhazia showed enough flexibility, making it possible to
extend the mission's mandate twice, each time for four months. But after
the situation had begun stabilising there and observers from the European
Union were transferred to Georgian regions adjacent to Abkhazia and South
Ossetia, we and the Abkhazian side came to the conclusion that the time
had come to adjust the U.N. role to the new situation that had changed
completely," the diplomat said.
However after "rather hard and intensive talks with our U.N.
colleagues it became obvious that they would like certain provisions that
were absolutely unacceptable to us to be preserved in the U.N. Security
Council resolution", he added.
"Some of our partners would like the mission to continue to operate
both in Georgia and in Abkhazia but to be called the U.N. Observer Mission
in Georgia. They also insisted that we should confirm our commitment to
the territorial integrity of Georgia that had ceased to exist after the
events in August 2008," Churkin said.
Therefore the mission's mandate expired on June 15, 2009 and the
mission is winding up its work that should be completed by October 1, 2009.
-0-zak/