NAMES IN THE NEWS : Sakharov to Probe Georgia Deaths

Human rights activist Andrei D. Sakharov, a former dissident who is now a member of the new Parliament, will help investigate the deaths of 19 Georgians in the brutal breakup of a nationalist rally last month, the Moscow News said today.

Georgian health authorities have said some of the 16 women and three men who died as authorities broke up the April 9 demonstration in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi suffered high doses of chemical poisoning, but there is some dispute about what kind of chemical agent was used on the crowd.

Sakharov, 68, a physicist and Nobel laureate who spent nearly seven years in exile in Gorky for opposing the Afghanistan war, was chosen by Georgia residents to participate in the investigation because of their desire for an impartial inquiry, the newspaper said.