Caucasus Reporting Service No 121: South Ossetia
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Subject: Caucasus Reporting Service No 121: South Ossetia
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Caucasus Reporting Service No 121: South Ossetia
WELCOME TO IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, No. 121, March 21, 2002.
DAGESTANI ISLAMIST LEADER GOES FREE Released from jail, Russia's
foremost Islamist politician faces an uphill struggle to rebuild his
career. By Nabi Abdullayev in Moscow
US DEPLOYMENT IN GEORGIA ANGERS SOUTH OSSETIA The new leader of the
breakaway republic of South Ossetia is calling for its principal ally
to help counter the US deployment in Georgia. By Alan Parastayev in
Tskhinval
AIDS THREAT HANGS OVER GEORGIA Unreported, shameful and
little-understood, AIDS is a disease which could overwhelm Georgia. By
Nata Mumladze and Giga Chikhladze in Tbilisi
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US DEPLOYMENT IN GEORGIA ANGERS SOUTH OSSETIA
The new leader of the breakaway republic of South Ossetia is calling
for its principal ally to help counter the US deployment in Georgia.
By Alan Parastayev in Tskhinval
Eduard Kokoyev, the new leader of South Ossetia, has called on Moscow
to send more peacekeepers to his breakaway republic following the
arrival of American military advisers in Georgia.
"We reserve the right to ask the leadership of the Russian Federation
to send an additional contingent of peacekeeping forces to the
territory of South Ossetia," said Kokoyev, elected last December, in a
newspaper interview. "We are confident that Russia is the only
guarantor of peace and tranquillity in the Transcaucasus." Russia
currently has about 500 peacekeepers stationed in South Ossetia.
On March 17, the first US military advisers arrived in Tbilisi, as
part of a mission to train and equip Georgian special forces to deal
with suspected al-Qaeda militants hiding in the lawless Pankisi Gorge.
The new military cooperation between Georgia and America has provoked
fears in Abkhazia and South Ossetia - the two regions trying to break
away from Georgian rule - that the Tbilisi authorities may be tempted
to move against them.
As in Abkhazia, Tskhinval's ministry of defence has said it is
preparing for a possible mobilisation in case of renewed fighting
between Georgia and South Ossetia.
South Ossetia lies only 100 km west of the Pankisi. An additional
cause for concern is that some 1,500 Ossetians still live in the
gorge, while more than two thousand have left in the last ten years.
The remainder have asked the authorities in Tskhinval to receive them,
complaining that, under the threat of robbery and kidnapping, they
cannot graze their cattle or leave their villages.
Recently, South Ossetian non-governmental organisations proposed
sending a group of international observers to the Pankisi to study the
situation in the Ossetian villages there.
Both Abkhazia and South Ossetia have unilaterally declared their
independence from Georgia. But, as relations between Tbilisi and
Moscow have deteriorated over the past few months, the leaders of both
self-proclaimed republics have recently also publicly discussed
another option, unification with Russia.
On March 1, the Tskhinval parliament, supported by the new president,
voted to send a message to the Russian assembly, the State Duma,
resolving that "in connection with the real threat of new armed
aggression by Georgia against South Ossetia... the parliament of the
Republic of South Ossetia appeals to the State Duma of the Russian
Federation to recognise the independence of the Republic of South
Ossetia."
In its turn, the State Duma passed a resolution on March 6, condemning
the American military deployment in Georgia. However, the motion was
milder than a previous draft, which had threatened to recognise the
independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The resolution adopted by
the Duma warned the Tbilisi government that if it began to act more
aggressively towards the two breakaway republics, the Russian
parliament would respect what it called their "expressions of free
choice".
Kokoyev - or Kokoite, as he is called in Ossetian - is himself a
Russian citizen, who has struck a much tougher note on relations with
Tbilisi than his predecessor.
In an interview with the newspaper Vremya Novostei, published on March
6, he said that he was not prepared to talk to the Georgian president,
Eduard Shevardnadze. "He ought to recognise the genocide of the
Ossetians and personally apologise," he said. "He must bear equal
responsibility with (former Georgian president) Zviad Gamsakhurdia."
Kokoyev, 38, is a former youth leader and wrestling champion. In the
fighting with Georgia in 1991-2, he headed the youngest and largest
armed detachment on the South Ossetian side.
Last December, Kokoyev defeated the Communist leader and chairman of
parliament Stanislav Kochiev to win the election, after the surprise
exit of the former president Ludvig Chibirov from the contest in the
first round of voting.
Chibirov lost despite strong support from the leadership in North
Ossetia across the mountains. In his eight-year rule in South Ossetia,
he had acquired the reputation of an authoritarian leader, who relied
heavily on his security agencies and took all decisions in the
breakaway republic, whether large or small.
The former president's critics accused him of adopting a weak position
in negotiations with Georgia and failing to improve the economic
condition of South Ossetia, despite the revenues coming in from the
Transcaucasian highway.
Kokoyev ran his campaign with the slogan, "Those who defended the
republic ought to lead it". His success appeared to stem from
high-level support from Russia. During the election campaign,
Kokoyev's opponents accused him of links to Russian criminal circles.
However, his supporters said that he was merely in close contact with
businessmen who were funding the reconstruction of the Transcaucasian
highway linking North and South Ossetia via a tunnel across the
region. Trade and smuggling along this road is the main sustenance for
South Ossetia's economy.
Alan Parastayev is director of the South Ossetian Centre of
Humanitarian Initiatives and Research
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IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service provides the regional and
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Editor-in-Chief: Anthony Borden. Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan;
Caucasus Editor and Project Coordinator: Tom de Waal; Regional
Coordinator: Marina Rennau in Tbilisi; Associate Editors: Shahin
Rzayev in Baku and Valery Dzutsev in Vladikavkaz. Editorial
assistance: Mirna Jancic and Heather Milner. To comment on this
service, send letter to the editor at [email protected]
The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) is a London-based
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democratic change.
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The opinions expressed in IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service are those
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publication or of IWPR.
Copyright (C) 2002 The Institute for War & Peace Reporting
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