CCJN Mission to South Ossetia
It was terribly cold on the Georgia-South Ossetia border. A group of lightly dressed journalists was talking to border guards, while they were checking their passports and questioning the purpose of the visit.
CCJN Mission to South Ossetia
It was terribly cold on the Georgia-South Ossetia border. A group of lightly dressed journalists was talking to border guards, while they were checking their passports and questioning the purpose of the visit.
A problem was about to emerge on the Ossetian side, since we had journalists from Georgia in our team. However, after Irina Kelekhsaeva, lecturer at the South Ossetian State University Journalism Department, intervened, everything went smoothly and within 20 minutes we were in Tskhinval.
We went to South Ossetia by invitation of IWPR which had organised a journalistic mission on Georgia-South Ossetia conflict. Later, we found out that there were two missions of this kind. Nevertheless, it was not the last surprise we encountered.
The first mission consisted of a visit to Tskhinval, the capital of South Ossetia, to meet many government officials and authorities of South Ossetia, representatives of NGOs and youth organisations. The second part covered the Georgian view of the conflict, with meetings in Tbilisi with various experts, politicians, opposition representatives as well as an interview with the alternative president of South Ossetia, Dmitri Sanakoyev.
First of all, it is worth mentioning the difficult geographic position that the unrecognised republic of South Ossetia finds itself in. Tskhinval is the main checkpoint of the Transcaucasian highway that goes to Russia through the Roks tunnel connecting with the North Ossetian town of Alagir.
However, one cannot use the highway directly. There's a large enclave of several Georgian villages not controlled by South Ossetian authorities. Similar Georgian enclaves are situated both to the west of South Ossetian capital (Avnevi) and to the east (Eredvi).
That is why people, going north from Tskhinval (or back), have to use a different road that bends around a Georgian enclave on the western side.
It takes an hour to get to the village of Gufta, where one can use the Transcaucasian highway again. There's a “landmine forest" between the road and the enclave, that had been set by the Ossetians 15 years ago after the so-called Zarsk massacre (the murder of 36 civilians by Georgian militants, who tried to escape besieged Tskhinval by bus on May 20, 1992).
However, there's no saying that the conflict is totally frozen. Alexei Sanakoyev, the head of the NGO Union of Patriotic Youth, assures us that the conflict is ongoing.
"They come to us, kill us, snipers shoot our young people from the tops of building. Can you call it a ‘frozen conflict’?" he asks.
"If the Georgians decide to attack the Ossetians, it will not be a Georgian-Ossetian war, but a Georgian-Caucasian one,” said Joint Control Commision deputy head Boris Chochiev.
"The only way out of this situation - is to negotiate. Neither of the party wants blood. Our ultimate task is to get independence.”
The Joint Control Commission is a peacekeeping force, operating in South Ossetia, which was created in 1992 after the South Ossetian War, and has Georgia, North Ossetia, South Ossetia and Russia as its members.
South Ossetia’s deputy foreign minister Alan Pliev - who is likely to have been on the list - said it’s no longer safe for many Ossetians to go to Georgia.
"There were even people from Joint Control Commission in the list, who have an inviolability status,” he said.
At the time, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, European Union and Russia intervened and gave the Ossetians certain guarantees based on oral agreements, and a Joint Control Commission conference went ahead in Tbilisi.
However, according to representatives of Joint Control Commission from South Ossetia, the three-day congress led to nothing. South Ossetia rejected a Georgian proposal to establish a joint peace-keeping guard-post.
Chichoev explained that on the last day of conference, several proposals were made that were not on the agenda, and "since they needed a preliminary preparation and discussion", those proposals were rejected.
"Secondly, the assumed peace-keeping guard-post was to be placed outside of the conflict zone, and that was out of the question,” he said.
"It doesn't personally matter to me, whether it is Saakashvili or someone else in the administration,” said Tskhinval mayor Robert Guliev, when we met him in a billiard hall in Tskhinval.
"Their attitude is firmly formulated: the Georgians want Ossetia without the Ossetians."
"I don't believe in the rally taking place today in Rustaveli Square, it is a sheer brigandage. The most important point that opposition makes for us is that Mikheil Saakashvili didn't do anything to restore territorial integrity. I don't see how, say, [Georgia’s conflict resolution minister] Giorgi Khaindrava imagines preserving territorial integrity, I just don't have a slightest idea."
In November, a state of emergency was called in Georgia, and hundreds of people were reported injured after police used force to break up mass protests in Tbilisi.
Over a cup of tea, Guliev talked about origins of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict and also the main tasks he faces as mayor.
He said he "cares about everything that goes on in the republic". He stressed that by "everything", he including the building of new houses – something which has not been done in the Republic since 1992.
At the same time, he noted that one of the signs of economic development in South Ossetia was the beginning of a construction boom.
"You must have noticed that you could see construction materials laying next to many private houses. People build and repair, and it means that there's a certainty about the future," he said.
We had a chance to visit a private house when we were invited for dinner by afamily on the first day of our visit to South Ossetian capital.
The Kokoev family prepared a feast for cold and hungry journalists in a show of Caucasus hospitality. We noted that among the family portraits on the wall hung a portrait of South Ossetian president Edward Kokoity.
On returning to Tbilisi, we found that most of the appointments with politicians were cancelled as demonstrations taking place in front of the Parliament building on Rustaveli Avenue intensified.
Thus, the second mission was almost cancelled at the moment when police forces dispersed the rally.
We began taking pictures of the masked people marched down the main street of Tbilisi. Some turned away from us either in shame or anger.
After a while we also put on the masks that paramedics on the road were handing out.
We had felt itching in our eyes, throat and nose, and understood that we could not go on without them.
Then we heard shooting. A large crowd ran towards us amidst clouds of light smoke, as sirens and gunshots rang out.
According to some sources, Georgian ministry of internal affairs forces use a non-lethal so-called acoustic system to control crowds, in addition to rubber bullets, tear gas and water pumps. The system emits a powerful signal, which induces pain and panic.
We continued to film the scenes using a video-camera we happened to be carrying. Once we realised that masks don't given protection from tear gas, we found a refuge in a neighbouring courtyard.
While some of us were lucky to be left intact, one journalist from our group received punches from police. Before he convinced them that he was a guest, he had already been hit several times with a truncheon.
That evening we also had a meeting with Mikheil Mirziashvili, a spokesman for the Open Society Georgia Foundation, OSGF.
He said it was wrong to disperse the demonstration, arguing the protesters had the right to gather.
South Ossetian representatives also had their point of view on the opposition rally.
Pliev said that if the situation continued getting out of hand, then the ensuing chaos could be used by Georgian authorities to distract the attention of the demonstrators from other matters.
"Just a year ago, this opposition couldn't gather 1,000 people to protest, but now we have as many as 100,000. The interesting part is that these people are not opposition supporters, but protesters against the present government," said Dmitri Avaliani, a political observer for 24 Hours newspaper.
Editor-in-chief of this paper Paata Veshapidze commented on the state of emergency declared in Georgia, after the demonstrators had been dispersed.
"We used to be called a luminary of democracy in the east just a couple of months ago. Now it is completely ridiculous, since in two hours we have regressed by 20 years," he said.
Avaliani added that despite the fact that "there's a law on state of emergency, it is still unclear what the basis was to shut down some of the cable TV channels".
When asked if 24 Hours would still be published during the state of emergency, he said it definitely would, since the state of emergency was only concerning broadcast media.
"Television has killed newspapers in Georgia,” said Avaliani. "That's why newspapers can write whatever they please. Once Saakashvili said that print journalism doesn't really matter."
"I don't read papers," he said more than once. “Which means that the government doesn't read anything either.”
Later on, we met with alternative president of South Ossetia Dmitri Sanakoyev in the Ossetian Cultural Centre in Tbilisi.
South Ossetia’s authorities have stated numerous times that the existence of the so-called interim administration of South Ossetia and people chairing it have contributed to destabilising the republic.
"The media have put a lot of effort into portraying me as a traitor and antagonist,” said Sanakoyev.
“Nevertheless, I am ready to leave my post today, if Kokoity is ready to negotiate, and South Ossetia will have long-awaited peace, because our republic is an inseparable part of Georgia, and we have to acknowledge that. If he doesn't want to negotiate with Georgia in necessary terms, he has to be made to do so."
Pro-Georgian Sanakoyev - a former prime minister and defence minister in Tskhinval - has been named by Georgia as head of a new administrative unit in South Ossetia.
At the same time, the alternative president noted, “If Georgia wanted to resolve the problem by force, it would have done it long ago."
Sanakoyev also paid special attention to the location of our meeting.
"Creating this centre proves that both Ossetians and Georgians are peaceful people, with similar cultures. We have always lived together, side by side, and mixed," he said.
"If Georgia decides to launch a war, I will never support it. Those who start bloodshed are guilty from the start.”
When asked about the Kokoity Fandarast, a political campaign launched to get rid of Kokoity, Sanakoyev said that he has nothing to do with it. At the same time, he noted that the movement had started "not without his support".
"We like the fact that the young people support us. It means that we do everything right,” he said.
The last part of our mission was the visit to villages of Heiti, Tamarasheni and Kurta, which are situated on the territory of South Ossetia and controlled by the interim administration of Sanakoyev.
In the meantime, South Ossetia has been waiting impatiently for the outcome of negotiations over Kosovo - as independence for the province would be an important precedent for the republic.
"However, even if the results will be negative, it will not [have an impact] on our republic," said Pliev. "We have more reasons to demand independence than Kosovo."
We went to South Ossetia by invitation of IWPR which had organised a journalistic mission on Georgia-South Ossetia conflict. Later, we found out that there were two missions of this kind. Nevertheless, it was not the last surprise we encountered.
The first mission consisted of a visit to Tskhinval, the capital of South Ossetia, to meet many government officials and authorities of South Ossetia, representatives of NGOs and youth organisations. The second part covered the Georgian view of the conflict, with meetings in Tbilisi with various experts, politicians, opposition representatives as well as an interview with the alternative president of South Ossetia, Dmitri Sanakoyev.
First of all, it is worth mentioning the difficult geographic position that the unrecognised republic of South Ossetia finds itself in. Tskhinval is the main checkpoint of the Transcaucasian highway that goes to Russia through the Roks tunnel connecting with the North Ossetian town of Alagir.
However, one cannot use the highway directly. There's a large enclave of several Georgian villages not controlled by South Ossetian authorities. Similar Georgian enclaves are situated both to the west of South Ossetian capital (Avnevi) and to the east (Eredvi).
That is why people, going north from Tskhinval (or back), have to use a different road that bends around a Georgian enclave on the western side.
It takes an hour to get to the village of Gufta, where one can use the Transcaucasian highway again. There's a “landmine forest" between the road and the enclave, that had been set by the Ossetians 15 years ago after the so-called Zarsk massacre (the murder of 36 civilians by Georgian militants, who tried to escape besieged Tskhinval by bus on May 20, 1992).
However, there's no saying that the conflict is totally frozen. Alexei Sanakoyev, the head of the NGO Union of Patriotic Youth, assures us that the conflict is ongoing.
"They come to us, kill us, snipers shoot our young people from the tops of building. Can you call it a ‘frozen conflict’?" he asks.
"If the Georgians decide to attack the Ossetians, it will not be a Georgian-Ossetian war, but a Georgian-Caucasian one,” said Joint Control Commision deputy head Boris Chochiev.
"The only way out of this situation - is to negotiate. Neither of the party wants blood. Our ultimate task is to get independence.”
The Joint Control Commission is a peacekeeping force, operating in South Ossetia, which was created in 1992 after the South Ossetian War, and has Georgia, North Ossetia, South Ossetia and Russia as its members.
South Ossetia’s deputy foreign minister Alan Pliev - who is likely to have been on the list - said it’s no longer safe for many Ossetians to go to Georgia.
"There were even people from Joint Control Commission in the list, who have an inviolability status,” he said.
At the time, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, European Union and Russia intervened and gave the Ossetians certain guarantees based on oral agreements, and a Joint Control Commission conference went ahead in Tbilisi.
However, according to representatives of Joint Control Commission from South Ossetia, the three-day congress led to nothing. South Ossetia rejected a Georgian proposal to establish a joint peace-keeping guard-post.
Chichoev explained that on the last day of conference, several proposals were made that were not on the agenda, and "since they needed a preliminary preparation and discussion", those proposals were rejected.
"Secondly, the assumed peace-keeping guard-post was to be placed outside of the conflict zone, and that was out of the question,” he said.
"It doesn't personally matter to me, whether it is Saakashvili or someone else in the administration,” said Tskhinval mayor Robert Guliev, when we met him in a billiard hall in Tskhinval.
"Their attitude is firmly formulated: the Georgians want Ossetia without the Ossetians."
"I don't believe in the rally taking place today in Rustaveli Square, it is a sheer brigandage. The most important point that opposition makes for us is that Mikheil Saakashvili didn't do anything to restore territorial integrity. I don't see how, say, [Georgia’s conflict resolution minister] Giorgi Khaindrava imagines preserving territorial integrity, I just don't have a slightest idea."
In November, a state of emergency was called in Georgia, and hundreds of people were reported injured after police used force to break up mass protests in Tbilisi.
Over a cup of tea, Guliev talked about origins of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict and also the main tasks he faces as mayor.
He said he "cares about everything that goes on in the republic". He stressed that by "everything", he including the building of new houses – something which has not been done in the Republic since 1992.
At the same time, he noted that one of the signs of economic development in South Ossetia was the beginning of a construction boom.
"You must have noticed that you could see construction materials laying next to many private houses. People build and repair, and it means that there's a certainty about the future," he said.
We had a chance to visit a private house when we were invited for dinner by afamily on the first day of our visit to South Ossetian capital.
The Kokoev family prepared a feast for cold and hungry journalists in a show of Caucasus hospitality. We noted that among the family portraits on the wall hung a portrait of South Ossetian president Edward Kokoity.
On returning to Tbilisi, we found that most of the appointments with politicians were cancelled as demonstrations taking place in front of the Parliament building on Rustaveli Avenue intensified.
Thus, the second mission was almost cancelled at the moment when police forces dispersed the rally.
We began taking pictures of the masked people marched down the main street of Tbilisi. Some turned away from us either in shame or anger.
After a while we also put on the masks that paramedics on the road were handing out.
We had felt itching in our eyes, throat and nose, and understood that we could not go on without them.
Then we heard shooting. A large crowd ran towards us amidst clouds of light smoke, as sirens and gunshots rang out.
According to some sources, Georgian ministry of internal affairs forces use a non-lethal so-called acoustic system to control crowds, in addition to rubber bullets, tear gas and water pumps. The system emits a powerful signal, which induces pain and panic.
We continued to film the scenes using a video-camera we happened to be carrying. Once we realised that masks don't given protection from tear gas, we found a refuge in a neighbouring courtyard.
While some of us were lucky to be left intact, one journalist from our group received punches from police. Before he convinced them that he was a guest, he had already been hit several times with a truncheon.
That evening we also had a meeting with Mikheil Mirziashvili, a spokesman for the Open Society Georgia Foundation, OSGF.
He said it was wrong to disperse the demonstration, arguing the protesters had the right to gather.
South Ossetian representatives also had their point of view on the opposition rally.
Pliev said that if the situation continued getting out of hand, then the ensuing chaos could be used by Georgian authorities to distract the attention of the demonstrators from other matters.
"Just a year ago, this opposition couldn't gather 1,000 people to protest, but now we have as many as 100,000. The interesting part is that these people are not opposition supporters, but protesters against the present government," said Dmitri Avaliani, a political observer for 24 Hours newspaper.
Editor-in-chief of this paper Paata Veshapidze commented on the state of emergency declared in Georgia, after the demonstrators had been dispersed.
"We used to be called a luminary of democracy in the east just a couple of months ago. Now it is completely ridiculous, since in two hours we have regressed by 20 years," he said.
Avaliani added that despite the fact that "there's a law on state of emergency, it is still unclear what the basis was to shut down some of the cable TV channels".
When asked if 24 Hours would still be published during the state of emergency, he said it definitely would, since the state of emergency was only concerning broadcast media.
"Television has killed newspapers in Georgia,” said Avaliani. "That's why newspapers can write whatever they please. Once Saakashvili said that print journalism doesn't really matter."
"I don't read papers," he said more than once. “Which means that the government doesn't read anything either.”
Later on, we met with alternative president of South Ossetia Dmitri Sanakoyev in the Ossetian Cultural Centre in Tbilisi.
South Ossetia’s authorities have stated numerous times that the existence of the so-called interim administration of South Ossetia and people chairing it have contributed to destabilising the republic.
"The media have put a lot of effort into portraying me as a traitor and antagonist,” said Sanakoyev.
“Nevertheless, I am ready to leave my post today, if Kokoity is ready to negotiate, and South Ossetia will have long-awaited peace, because our republic is an inseparable part of Georgia, and we have to acknowledge that. If he doesn't want to negotiate with Georgia in necessary terms, he has to be made to do so."
Pro-Georgian Sanakoyev - a former prime minister and defence minister in Tskhinval - has been named by Georgia as head of a new administrative unit in South Ossetia.
At the same time, the alternative president noted, “If Georgia wanted to resolve the problem by force, it would have done it long ago."
Sanakoyev also paid special attention to the location of our meeting.
"Creating this centre proves that both Ossetians and Georgians are peaceful people, with similar cultures. We have always lived together, side by side, and mixed," he said.
"If Georgia decides to launch a war, I will never support it. Those who start bloodshed are guilty from the start.”
When asked about the Kokoity Fandarast, a political campaign launched to get rid of Kokoity, Sanakoyev said that he has nothing to do with it. At the same time, he noted that the movement had started "not without his support".
"We like the fact that the young people support us. It means that we do everything right,” he said.
The last part of our mission was the visit to villages of Heiti, Tamarasheni and Kurta, which are situated on the territory of South Ossetia and controlled by the interim administration of Sanakoyev.
In the meantime, South Ossetia has been waiting impatiently for the outcome of negotiations over Kosovo - as independence for the province would be an important precedent for the republic.
"However, even if the results will be negative, it will not [have an impact] on our republic," said Pliev. "We have more reasons to demand independence than Kosovo."
