South Ossetian foreign ministry concerned about possibility of repressions against Ossetians living in Georgia

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South Ossetian Foreign Ministry, being concerned by a possibility of repressions against Ossetians living in Georgia, has addressed the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, the head of the OSCE Mission in Georgia, ambassadors of foreign countries asking to do their utmost and influence upon Georgian leadership in order to prevent from a set-back of the anti-Ossetian campaign in Georgia and to stop putting pressure upon Georgian citizens of Ossetian nationality.

As a REGNUM correspondent reports, the South Ossetian foreign ministry says in its statement that the official Tbilisi, without having an opportunity to influence the process and outcomes of the referendum on independence and presidential election in South Ossetia, is trying to exert pressure upon them by any means at hand. Thus, a group of persons referring to themselves as members of the Union for National Liberation of South Ossetia has announced its intension to hold alternative “election of the Republic of South Ossetia president” and establishment of an election committee in this connection. “Practically, the matter concerns illegal intentions guided from Georgia and aimed at destabilizing the situation in the region,” the document says.

South Ossetian leadership is extremely concerned with reports that “to participate in this farce, Georgian special services coercively engage members of the Ossetian Diaspora in Georgia, who are Georgian citizens and have nothing to do with the referendum and election in South Ossetia.” According to the South-Ossetian foreign ministry, by such actions, the Georgian leadership is deliberately worsening the situation in the Georgian-Ossetian relations, which is already exacerbated beyond limits, and violates basic rights of Georgian citizens of Ossetian origin, who are a national minority there. “The situation of 1989-92 is recurring, when Georgian citizens of Ossetian nationality were forced to participate in scaled actions for abolishing the South Ossetian autonomy. Later, Georgian nationalists carried out severe repressions and mass ethnic purges against them,” the statement by the South Ossetian foreign ministry says.