Commentary of Foreign Minister of South Ossetia David Sanakoev with regard to the speech of President Saakashvili at the PACE Winter Session.
President Saakashvili's speech at the Parliamentary Assembly was, of course, biased and prejudiced against South Ossetia and the Russian Federation. Actually, we have heard nothing new from the President of Georgia, but for the same rhetoric, which the Georgian leadership has been following for many years, and which led to the military aggression in August 2008.
Once again, the President of Georgia called Abkhazia and South Ossetia as the occupied territories. The absurdity of the terms "occupation" and "occupied territory" in relation to South Ossetia and Abkhazia has been conclusively proved by international experts in the field of international law at the 20th round of the Geneva discussions. As for Russia, it is still the only guarantor of stability and security in the Republic of South Ossetia, and in no way is the occupier, despite the great desire of Mr. Saakashvili. In his speech the president said a lot about democracy, but for some reason nothing was said about the outrageous facts of infringement of human rights in Georgia. We regret to see how the new Georgian authorities continue to support a policy of Saakashvili, as there are not citizens of the Republic of South Ossetia among the hundreds of the amnestied prisoners for political reasons. South Ossetia considers puzzling the fact that despite repeated appeals to international organizations, including PACE, to provide representatives of South Ossetia to convey their position, there is not yet the understanding, and the Georgian government unilaterally continues to state its own vision.
Tskhinval, January 22, 2012
