Occupant Forces Install Surveillance Tower near Khurvaleti Village
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, February 8
Russia occupants are constructing a surveillance tower near the village Kurvaleti located at the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL) with occupied South Ossetia.
Khurvaleti is located just over 100km north-west of capital Tbilisi, near the administrative boundary line separating the Russian-occupied Tskhinvali from the rest of Georgia.
The village has been a hotspot for detainment of locals and construction of barbed wire by occupation forces for years.
Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, State Minister for Reconciliation and Civil Equity stated that the recent developments in Khurvaleti are a daily struggle against people carried out by the occupational regime.
“Unfortunately, after the open military occupation in 2008, the installation of artificial barriers on the occupation line continues. So-called checkpoints or wire fences – these are the daily struggle against people carried out by the occupation regime. This is especially cynical when movement on the only road to Tskhinvali direction is limited,” the minister said.
She added that the occupation regime is now putting up Surveillance Tower in order to intensify pressure and observe more closely how many our Ossetian population seeks to cross the occupational line and get to the controlled territory.
Tsikhelashvili noted the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) to Georgia is informed about the issue.
“The Georgian side will raise the issue of putting up Surveillance Tower at Khurvaleti village by the occupational regime during the next round of the meeting of Group of Incidents Prevention and Response Mechanisms in Ergneti village on February 8,” she said.
Occupants started installing the surveillance tower on February 6.
