Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili on Friday switched his hardline defence minister to another post on the eve of an independence referendum in a rebel region on which the minister had taken a hawkish stand, according to Reuters. Irakli Okruashvili, 33, who has also launched sharp verbal attacks on powerful neighbour Russia, was moving to the ministry of economic development after 11 months as defence minister, a top presidential aide said. Georgia's region of South Ossetia that broke unilaterally with Tbilisi amid intense fighting in the early 1990s is holding a referendum on independence on Sunday in defiance of the Tbilisi government and most of the international community.
