TIMELINE: Conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia

(Reuters) – Fighting raged in and around the capital of Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia region on Friday as Georgian troops and warplanes pounded separatist forces in a bid to regain control of the territory. The separatists have Moscow’s political and financial backing.

Here is a chronology of events in South Ossetia:

November 1989 – South Ossetia declares its autonomy from the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, triggering three months of fighting.

December 1990 – Georgia and South Ossetia begin a new armed conflict which lasts until 1992.

June 1992 – Russian, Georgian and South Ossetian leaders meet in Sochi, sign an armistice and agree the creation of a tripartite peacekeeping force of 500 soldiers from each entity.

November 1993 – South Ossetia drafts its own constitution.

November 1996 – South Ossetia elects its first president.

December 2000 – Russia and Georgia sign an intergovernment agreement to re-establish the economy in the conflict zone.

December 2001 – South Ossetia elects Eduard Kokoity as president, in 2002 he asks Moscow to recognize the republic’s independence and absorb it into Russia.

January 2005 – Russia gives guarded approval to Georgia’s plan to grant broad autonomy to South Ossetia in exchange for dropping its bid for independence.

November 2006 – South Ossetia overwhelmingly endorses its split with Tbilisi in a referendum. Georgia’s prime minister says this is part of a Russian campaign to stoke a war.

April 2007 – Georgia’s parliament approves a law to create a temporary administration in South Ossetia, raising tension with Russia.

June 2007 – South Ossetian separatists say Georgia attacked Tskhinvali with mortar and sniper fire. Tbilisi denies this.

October 2007 – Talks hosted by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe between Georgia and South Ossetia break down.

March 2008 – South Ossetia asks the world to recognize its independence from Georgia, following the West’s support for Kosovo’s secession from Serbia.

March 2008 – Georgia’s bid to join NATO, though unsuccessful, prompts Russia’s parliament to urge the Kremlin to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

April 2008 – South Ossetia rejects a Georgian power-sharing deal, insists on full independence.

August 2008 – Fighting breaks out between Georgian and separatist South Ossetian forces. Georgia says its forces have “freed” the greater part of the Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali.

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