Comment of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of South Ossetia D.N. Medoev to IA "Res"
Recently, the Georgian state propaganda machine, with the support of European partners, has stepped up information attacks on the authorities of South Ossetia in connection with the allegedly worsening situation in the border areas, in particular, regarding the restriction of visits to medical facilities of Georgia for medical treatment of South Ossetian citizens. The managers of this project come up with plots of terrible massacre caused by the so-called "Occupation authorities."
In this regard, I would like to clarify for Georgian followers of the works of Alfred Hitchcock some unknown moments of recent history for them.
The provision of medical services is portrayed as a “goodwill act” of the Georgian people in relation to Ossetians. At the same time, Georgian propagandists do not report on what means the project is operating, who is the donor and who is the recipient of financial flows. It would be more honest on the part of state propagandists to tell the truth to their people that these funds are allocated to the Georgian government by a number of states and international organizations with a specific purpose - to cover the costs of providing medical services to citizens of South Ossetia and Abkhazia during the implementation of the "soft power" program. These funds should not be used by the implementers of this project to maintain the apparatus of dubious structures or to blackmail sick people and their relatives when applying for help.
An important point is not Georgia’s funds, their origin has nothing to do with budget revenues from the Georgian taxpayer. It is no secret that Georgian citizens themselves have rather low social guarantees, and the vast majority of Georgian citizens are not able to afford expensive treatment and medicines. But that's not the point.
We have to remind the Georgian society and the international community that from 1920 to 2008, all Georgian governments, without exception, carried out a permanent policy of destroying Ossetians who lived both on the territory of South Ossetia proper and in places of compact residence in Georgia itself.
As a result of the punitive expedition in 1919-1920. more than 40,000 people lost their homes; more than 170 villages were burned and destroyed. About 10,000 people were killed and died as a result of forced displacement. For these crimes against humanity and the crimes committed by subsequent Georgian governments over a century, no one was punished or even apologized to the Ossetian people. Based on this, the assistance provided by Tbilisi is regarded by us as part of the compensation that the official authorities are obliged to pay to the Ossetian people, as the successors of the Georgian Democratic Republic of 1918-1921, the governments of Soviet Georgia and the post-Soviet period.
Now the main thing is about the quality of the assistance provided. Here you will have to bypass the actions of the special services of Georgia, which oversee this "humanitarian project", offering to "voluntarily" arrange cooperation with them or insisting on contacting the Georgian authorities for the citizenship of this country. But that is another topic.
The most interesting, from our point of view, is statistics, which shows the "reverse side of the coin." According to the information available at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for 2018-2019, the mortality rate from the total number of South Ossetian citizens exported for treatment to Georgia averaged 25%, i.e. in a quarter of cases, for the citizens of South Ossetia, medical care provided in Georgia was fatal.
The Georgian authorities should pay attention to this and stop the propaganda that is unpleasant for the Georgian society, which does not fit into the high calm of the Georgian officialdom, loudly declaring the intentions of peace and friendship.
