Georgian and Foreign Officials Respond to New Barbed Eire Fences in Georgia
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Friday, November 9
Georgian Prime Minister, Reconciliation Minister, PACE Monitoring Committee co-rapporteur for Georgia and US Ambassador to Georgia have condemned the erection of new barbed wire fences at the village of Atotsi, in the Kareli municipality of Georgia, near the occupied Tskhinvali region by occupants.
Georgian PM Mamuka Bakhtadze stated yesterday that the country will tolerate neither old nor new barbed wire fences erected by occupants and that the international community has been informed concerning the fact of creeping occupation.
“We will use all available levers to stop the process. We have a firm support from the international community and I am sure that we will end the injustice,” Bakhtadze said.
Georgian Reconciliation Minister Ketevan Tsikhelashvili says that Russia is only interested in territories, as the barbed wire fences are isolating Tskhinvali from the outside world and are creating serious movement problems for ethnic Ossetians.
Acting US Ambassador to Georgia Elisabeth Rood has condemned the erection of the new occupation line.
“We continuously call on the Russian Federation to fulfill the terms of 2008 ceasefire agreement and to withdraw its forces to prewar positions, reverse its recognition of the so-called independence of Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia (Tskhinvali) and to allow humanitarian access to these regions," Rood said.
PACE Monitoring Committee co-rapporteur for Georgia Kerstin Lundgren says that occupation continues and the installation of new barbed wire fences separates Georgian people.
“I reiterate again that this is unacceptable. We condemn it. This shows how the Russian authorities commit borderization, the building of artificial barriers between the Georgian people. We, as the rapporteurs, will hand it over to the Council of Europe. When I return to Sweden, I'll let people know what is happening because I think they need to know what's going on,” said Lundgren.
Russia occupied 20 percent of the Georgian land and continues its creeping occupation on the territory of the sovereign country.
