Georgian Village Goes to South Ossetia

This news updete by www.thearynews.com





TBILISI: Militiamen from rebel South Ossetia have taken control of the disputed Georgian village of Perevi, raising fears that hundreds of villagers will flee their homes, Georgian officials said Saturday.

Perevi, a mainly ethnic Georgian village of about 1,100 people on the western border of South Ossetia, had been under Russian control since the August war with Georgia.

"Today the Russian military withdrew from Perevi and about 50 armed South Ossetian militiamen entered the village," Georgian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Khatuna Iosava said.

There were no reports of violence as South Ossetian forces moved in, Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said, but local villagers were expected to flee after their arrival.

"The Georgian population is under threat and we expect a mass exodus overnight or tomorrow morning," he said.

Utiashvili said Georgia had alerted European Union ceasefire monitors to the move and that Georgian security forces would not respond.

"There has to be a negotiated settlement to this, there cannot be a military settlement," he said.

The European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) in Georgia said in a statement that it was "concerned" about the situation in Perevi.

"Evidence on the ground seems... to suggest that Russian military forces will be replaced by forces of the South Ossetian de facto authorities. This would further exacerbate tensions to the detriment of the civilian population in and around the village of Perevi," the statement said.

Russian forces moved into Georgia on August 8 to repel a Georgian military attempt to retake South Ossetia, which has received extensive backing from Moscow.

Under an EU-brokered ceasefire, Russian forces later withdrew to within South Ossetia and another rebel Georgian region, Abkhazia, which Moscow has recognised as independent states.

But Tbilisi had accused Russia of not respecting the ceasefire by keeping forces in Perevi and in the disputed Akhalgori district, an area that was under Georgian control before the war.

The EU's special representative for the Georgian crisis, Pierre Morel, is expected to visit Abkhazia on Monday, a news agency reported, citing the foreign ministry for the breakaway region.





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