On October 28, a 70-year-old Margo Martiashvili was urgently delivered to Tskhinval, to the republican hospital, from the Leningor district with a diagnosis of stroke. Unfortunately, despite all the efforts of the doctors, it was not possible to save the woman. To the relatives and friends of the late compatriot we express our condolences.
A reaction from Georgia followed immediately. Georgian media, and especially politicians, argue that a tragic incident could have been avoided if the seriously ill Martiashvili had been timely transported to a medical facility in Tbilisi. But, as you know, from September 4, crossing points of the state border of South Ossetia and Georgia are temporarily closed by the decision of the leadership of South Ossetia - until the withdrawal of the police post put up by the Georgian side in the border strip near the village of Uista.
Human rights activists, the media and the Georgian authorities would hardly have paid attention to this extremely sad fact if any Tskhinval grandmother died in the hospital, regardless of nationality, just as deprived of the possibility of being sent to Tbilisi. Perhaps, our medicine is less successful than in Georgia, which was not prevented, like South Ossetia, 20 years of economic devastation caused by the permanent state of war with an aggressive neighbor. But, nevertheless, our doctors are doing everything possible for the qualified treatment of patients, and if tragic cases do happen, then this has nothing to do with the ethnicity of the patients or their place of residence in South Ossetia.
Residents of Leningor district are particularly sensitive to the lack of access to Georgian medical facilities, which before the closure of the border was carried out without problems (except for quarantine during the H1N1 influenza epidemic in Georgia The border crossing permit allowed simply to bring a seriously ill person to the border crossing point "Razdaekhaen", where a renamable was already waiting for him. But in order to transport a patient from any other region of South Ossetia to a Tbilisi clinic, it is necessary to observe a number of procedures, including the recommendation of a consultation of doctors and an agreement with the office of the Red Cross.
Now both the Leningor and residents of all other regions of the Republic are deprived of these opportunities. The actions of the Georgian security forces, deploying a police module near the South Ossetian village of Uista, inevitably had to lead to dangerous incidents, the victims of which could be, including ethnic Georgians living in South Ossetia. But the Georgian authorities continue to assure their people and international organizations of the best motives and noble appointment of the post. The allegedly armed people in uniforms are located a stone's throw from the houses of local residents only with the aim of ensuring the security of the population ofеру border villages, mainly еру Ossetian, whose well-being was never worried by the Georgian authorities.
Simple logic suggests that the facility from which the threat emanates cannot provide security, so the Ossetian side raised the question of the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of an illegal post from the territory of South Ossetia. Not waiting for an adequate reaction of the Georgian side, the leadership of South Ossetia made a response:
In connection with the escalation of tension by official Tbilisi on several sections of the Georgian border with South Ossetia and the resulting complication of the operational situation in the border zone, in order to ensure the safety of the population of South Ossetia, the intersection of the South Ossetian-Georgian State Border (IGCP)" Hrazdahan "and" Sinagur. "
After some time, residents of the Leningor district turned to President Anatoly Bibilov with a request to open Razdakhan, complaining about the complication of the humanitarian situation. Food products in Leningor stores imported from Russia are much more expensive than those delivered from Georgia. Low salaries have to be spent very economically; this is especially difficult in the families with children. Georgian human rights activists saw a violation of the rights of the Leningor residents in that they could not buy goods from Georgia, i.e. from a country with which South Ossetia is still at war, because a peace treaty has not been signed.
However, just as food and all other goods are imported from Russia to the rest of South Ossetia, where salaries, by the way, are not higher than in Leningor. In addition, it is no secret that a significant part of the residents of the Leningor district receive another pension, or even a salary in Georgia. But it is impossible to achieve a way out of this absurd situation in one fell swoop, therefore, the Republic’s leadership is quite cautiously implementing a set of measures to fully integrate the population of the district, step by step, so as not to break the ties of kinship that connect almost all residents of Leningor with Georgia.
The KGB RSO statement emphasizes that the measure to close the border is temporary - until the situation normalizes. And this already depends on the readiness of the Georgian authorities to fulfill the just demand of the Ossetian side, i.e. withdraw an illegally exposed police post in the area of the village of Vista.
It turns out that the Leningor residents should write letters not to the President of South Ossetia, but to the Georgian leadership, so that they would do everything in their power if they are concerned about the situation of the residents of the region, many of whom have the Georgian citizenship.
The head of the State Security Service of Georgia, Grigol Liluashvili, admitted in a recent media interview that the "opponents and civic activists are urging the authorities to deploy defensive units along the dividing line that would prevent this bordering using force." Liluashvili said that such measures were unacceptable, but not because it would provoke armed clashes between the parties. The head of the State Security Service is worried that: "This is what the enemy wants - so that armed people are located on this side of the dividing line, which would cause an association of the existence of a pseudo-border."
In South Ossetia, they are less interested in what kind of associations a state borders in a neighboring country - a mandatory attribute of any independent state, in any case it is assumed that it should be clearly defined, equipped and well-guarded.
Therefore, the statement of the EU observer mission in Georgia in connection with the death of Margo Martiashvili that "severe restrictions on freedom of movement for the population in the Akhalgori Valley lead to such tragic cases" is surprising. More recently, European observers could have been the victim of a provocation by Georgian police officers who sent the EUMM officers, allegedly by chance, towards South Ossetian territory in the face of an inadequate reaction from border guards. The observers should, instead of claims to the Ossetian side, associate this provocation with the putting up of a police post in Uista and concluding what tragic cases actually are connected with.
It is worth returning to this provocation once again, since the true authors of this dangerous plan, of course, would like to hide their ears behind the noisy reaction of the Georgian politicians and security officials. The statement that the EUMM officers were detained by the Ossetian border guards was made by the Observer Mission just before the meeting of the parties within the framework of the IPRM in Ergneti. And already during the meeting, the EUMM delegation acknowledged that the observers violated the border and ended up in the territory of South Ossetia, and they deeply apologized for this. Although, at the same time, the central passage of the statement, which was made by EUMM on October 24 in hot pursuit of the detention of its observers: "in the territory that is traditionally regarded as the territory controlled by Georgia," remained outside the brackets.
Let's hope that the European observers at least drew attention to the inconsistency of their statements and yet learned a lesson from that dangerous provocation, which, due to the "frivolity" of Georgian policemen, could turn into a tragic case. The latest EUMM statement, dated October 31, can be viewed with a stretch as the readiness of the European observers for constructive cooperation. The mission denied the information spread by the "Force in unity" movement about a "certain group of persons in masks and on horses" recorded by them near the village of Atotsi, allegedly in connection with which the EU observers were summoned to the region.
“At dawn on October 30, the EU observer mission carried out the planned patrols near the village of Atotsi. The presence of on-site observers is not a response to a specific incident, some sources claim. The mission did not detect any significant changes in the presence of the South Ossetian security forces on the ground. The Mission assesses the security situation in this particular section of the administrative border as relatively stable lately, "the EUMM statement said.
