January 23, 2013 at the winter session of PACE was adopted a final resolution on the report of Tina Aketoft "Georgia and Russia: the humanitarian situation in the areas affected by the conflict and war," which has arisen a number of serious issues in South Ossetia.
In the course of formation a new system of international relations that is taking place in the modern world, it is important this system to be stable. It should be based on several poles, reflecting the real weight of countries and regions in different parts of the world. PACE is a respected international platform, which must consider the interests of all countries on the basis of mutual respect and equality.
The Resolution is allegedly supporting humanitarian issues; in fact, it is initially politicized, as South Ossetia is called the occupied part of Georgia, which, of course, is not true. The Republic of South Ossetia is an independent sovereign state and has nothing to do with Georgia.
The paragraphs of the resolution dealing with the internally displaced persons, express particular concern about the Georgian refugees, but the reality is infinitely far from the point of view, which is imposed by the resolution. Most of the ethnic Georgians left South Ossetia for a few days before the attack of the Georgian forces in August 2008, that is, they left their homes not by force, but voluntarily. The total number of Georgians, who left the territory of South Ossetia in August 2008, was, approximately, just over 5,000 people. At the same time, out of South Ossetia and Georgia in 1990 were forced to flee in search of salvation from ethnic cleansing and aggression about 100,000 Ossetian refugees, whose fate has caused little concern of the European parliamentarians.
The resolution has completely ignored the position of the people of South Ossetia. The PACE delegates with manic sequence, following the Georgian politicians, appropriately or inappropriately, have raised the issue of the need to bring the international observers in the Republic of South Ossetia, where the fifth year after the August 2008 there is real stability and peace, ensured by the presence of the Russian military contingent in accordance with bilateral Russian-South Ossetian agreements. South Ossetian people are grateful to the Russian military and border guards to ensure external security of the Republic.
Addressing the PACE parliamentarians, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of South Ossetia again calls for recognition of the realities and give the representatives of South Ossetia an opportunity to participate in the discussion of issues related to our country. Just lack of international contacts and limited access of South Ossetia to the international platform create a distorted vision of the situation in the region among members of the international community.
Tskhinval, January 24, 2013
