Rebel-Controlled South Ossetia Closes Border for Georgia’s Elections

TSKHINVALI, South Ossetia - Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia has sealed its de facto border with Georgia as a security precaution during Georgia parliamentary elections.

“The Security Committee decided that nobody will be allowed to cross the border until 7:00 am on October 9,” South Ossetia’s Russian-backed rebel government said in a statement.

Separatist officials in the regional capital Tskhinvali said the decision to close the border was made after the local government claims it received intelligence information from Moscow saying the Georgia planned “a destabilizing provocation” against the rebel region.

Georgia’s Reconciliation and Civil Equality State Minister of Georgia Ketevan Tsikhelashvili slammed the decision, calling South Ossetia’s claims “illegitimate and dangerous”.

 “This is a deliberate attempt by the Moscow-backed authorities in Tskhinvali to quash Georgian citizens’ rights by not allowing them to cross the border and express their political,” Tsikhelashvili stressed.

She noted that South Ossetia had barred Georgian citizens from crossing the administrative border during an election season in the rest of the country since 2008 Russian-Georgian Five-Day War.

The war resulted in 20 per cent of Georgian territory being occupied by Russia, after which thousands of Georgian citizens became internally displaced people.

By Thea Morrison

Edited by Nicholas Waller