Last week the annual meeting of OSCE on human scale has been held in Warsaw. The expert of the Society «Saendidzaen» David Sanakoev has addressed the meeting on a freedom of movement at the Georgian-South Ossetian border. In 2008 South Ossetia underwent aggression of Georgia. At present there are no any interstate agreements between Georgia and the RSO, regulating crossing of people and cargoes through the border.
As Georgia refuses to give a guarantee of safety for Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as it is stipulated by the Medvedev-Sarkozy agreement, security threat for citizens of the RSO is still the actual, irrespective of ethnicity.Despite this fact, understanding the needs of people, living in the frontier villages, which were under the Georgian occupation till 2008, in movement for keeping ties of relationship, economic and other contacts, the leadership of South Ossetia has made a decision to establish the check points till the conclusion of relevant agreements and has confirmed the list of settlements of the Republic of South Ossetia, which inhabitants have the right of crossing the frontier of the Republic of South Ossetia in the simplified order and the places of crossing the frontier of the Republic of South Ossetia; the border crossing by foreign citizens, driving, cartage, luggage, private goods, imported (exported) is also regulated in the simplified order.At the same time the majority of people crossing the border of South Ossetia and Georgia meet obstacles, obstructed by Georgia. Here is the following statement on the bulletin board located at the Georgian side of the frontier:For the record of the inhabitants of the occupied territories: inhabitants of the occupied territories should apply for the special administrative points located near the border of the villages (Perevi, Dvani, Ergneti, Odisi) 10 days before moving to Georgia.Thedocument xerocopy should be attached to the application, confirming registration in the territory of the former South Ossetian autonomous region. The application may be submitted every day from 9.00 till 20-00 personally or through the trustee.And after this procedure many citizens do not receive permission of the Georgian authorities to cross the border.Besides, the inhabitants of Leningorsky district face a lot of problems while transporting goods across the border; they undergo oppressions of the law enforcement agencies of Georgia. I could list set of surnames of people, the ethnic Georgian, citizens of the RSO who have undergone oppressions of special services of Georgia, who are detained at the check points and are declined to cooperation. They fear for safety of their relatives, living in Georgia and consequently ask not to voice their names. Representatives of the public organization, working in Leningorsky district of the RSO also face problems at the border crossing. They could not transport the printer presented them by the international organization. The Georgian party motivated this fact by the argument that it was impossible to transport such kind of equipment to the occupied territory.The Georgian leadership is exploiting the current situation in its political targets, while the needs of the population are still ignored.
