South Ossetian authorities said they arrested the four boys, aged 14 to 17, on Nov. 5 for illegally crossing the border and storing explosives and weapons. Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said the charges were fabricated.

“Thomas Hammarberg has entered the region and he will conduct talks with the Ossetians, but I am skeptical that the boys will be released,” Utiashvili said by telephone today in the capital Tbilisi.

Georgia lost a five-day war against Russia in August 2008 over South Ossetia, which Russia later recognized as a sovereign country. The Georgian government maintains that South Ossetia is part of Georgia and has been occupied by Russia, which defends the region’s borders.

Merab Chigoyev, a representative of South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity, said in an e-mailed statement last week that legal proceedings had been instituted against the teenagers and that the region’s Interior Ministry was conducting an investigation. 

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