Georgian Youth Spends Night at Occupation Line
Georgian students and representatives of the civil sector set up tents this weekend in Bershueti village, Gori Municipality, on the occupation line with de facto South Ossetia, in order to protest Russia’s creeping occupation that has been taking place since the Georgia-Russia August War in 2008.
The slogan of the protest rally was ‘No to Occupation – Russia is an Occupant’. Demonstrators protested the recent illegal installation of so-called “Green Signs’ on Georgian territory in Bershueti by occupation forces, which left 20 hectares of Georgian farmers’ lands misappropriated.
The students called on the Russian Federation to stop occupation and annexation of Georgian territories. They also addressed the Georgian government to do its best to make the creeping occupation the topical issue of discussion for the international community.
Georgian law enforcers were mobilized at the dividing line to ensure safe movement of participants of the protest rally. The police crews stayed the whole night.
The organizers of the rally claim they will protest the creeping occupation again in the near future.
“The problem of creeping occupation does not concern only the residents of the territory under the control of the de facto South Ossetia authorities; this is a problem for all Georgia and everyone should protest it," Giorgi Nadareishvili, one of the students, stated.
While commenting on the issue, the Georgian Prime Minister, Giorgi Kvirikashvili, stated that occupation is Georgia’s top issue.
“Occupation is a very serious problem. We have talked about it many times...Our government has not spent even a minute without this issue being the number one topic on our agenda,” the PM said.
Kvirikashvili added that 135 villages were lost not as a result of the creeping occupation, as it is portrayed by a part of the opposition, but as a result of the occupation that the country inherited from the previous United National Movement (UNM) government [See page 9].
“I believe that the current government will take the necessary steps to solve this problem,” he added.
On July 4, Gori Governor, Davit Tsertsvadze, stated that Russian soldiers had resumed fortification efforts along the so-called border of de facto South Ossetia and moved the so-called border sign 500 meters into Georgian-controlled territory.
The governor added that due to the erection of the sign, residents of the village of Bershueti, the Chilindrishvili and the Khodeli families -have been deprived of access to 20 hectares of agricultural land owned by them.
However, the European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM) released a statement saying they can confirm that borderization activities took place in Bershueti on June 19, not on July 4.
Official Tbilisi condemned the illegal installation of ‘border signs’ on Georgian territory and added that the Russian Federation continues to grossly violate the principles of international law and its commitments undertaken in the Ceasefire Agreement of 12 August 2008.
Thea Morrison