Here is a chronology of events in South Ossetia:
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November 1989 -- South Ossetia declares autonomy from the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, triggering three months of fighting.
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December 1990 -- Georgia and South Ossetia begin a new armed conflict which lasts until 1992.
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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.
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November 1993 -- South Ossetia drafts its own constitution.
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November 1996 -- South Ossetia elects its first president.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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April 2007 -- Georgia's parliament approves a law to create a temporary administration in South Ossetia, raising tension with Russia.
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June 2007 -- South Ossetian separatists say Georgia attacked Tskhinvali with mortar and sniper fire. Tbilisi denies this.
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October 2007 -- Talks hosted by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe between Georgia and South Ossetia break down.
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March 2008 -- South Ossetia asks the world to recognize its independence from Georgia following the West's support for Kosovo's secession from Serbia.
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March 2008 -- Georgia's bid to join NATO, though unsuccessful, prompts Russia's parliament to urge the Kremlin to recognise the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
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April 2008 -- South Ossetia rejects a Georgian power-sharing deal, insists on full independence.
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August 2008 -- Georgian forces attack South Ossetia's capital Tskhinvali to re-take the breakaway region. Russia says its troops were responding to the assault and Georgia's Saakashvili says the two countries were at war.
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-- Georgian forces pull out after three days of fighting. Russia says its troops control most of Tskhinvali.
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 -- Russia bombs a military airfield outside Tbilisi.
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 -- Russia says that the death toll in fighting stands at 2,000. Georgia said on Friday that it had lost up to 300 people killed, mainly civilians.