MINELRES: Caucasus Reporting Service No. 137: South Ossetia

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WELCOME TO IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, No. 137, Month 07, 2002.

SOUTH OSSETIA: PEACEKEEPERS HONOURED FOR MISSION SUCCESS - A decade of
peace and improving community relations is celebrated in the breakaway
republic of South Ossetia. Inga Kochieva reports from Tskhinval
 
AZERBAIJAN: LIFE IN THE "SLAVE MARKET" - With unemployment running
rife, the nation's intellectuals, craftsmen and refugees take to the
streets in a thankless search for jobs. Lia Bairamova reports from
Baku

KARABAKH: FARMERS IN SURVIVAL STRUGGLE - War and poverty have made
life increasingly difficult in the breakaway republic of Nagorny
Karabakh. Ashot Beglarian reports from Stepanakert

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SOUTH OSSETIA: PEACEKEEPERS HONOURED FOR MISSION SUCCESS

A decade of peace and improving community relations is celebrated in
the breakaway republic of South Ossetia

By Inga Kochieva in Tskhinval

Ten years after a peacekeeping mission was established in South
Ossetia, the mayor of the capital Tskhinval has marked its continuing
success by renaming a city street in its honour. After the idea was
overwhelmingly backed by a grateful community, Ulitsa Privokzalnaya -
Railway Station Street - was renamed Peacekeepers Street in early
June.

War broke out between Georgia and South Ossetia in 1989. Three years
later, the autonomous district announced it had seceded from Georgia.
Around 2,000 people were killed in the ensuing bloodshed and up to
100,000 were forced to leave their homes.

An agreement to deploy a peacekeeping force was signed in summer 1992
in the Black Sea resort of Dagomys. In addition to the warring sides,
the meeting was attended by Russia and the Organisation for Security
and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE.

The force, consisting of Russian, Ossetian and Georgian battalions
working side by side, entered South Ossetia on July 1, 1992 when the
fighting was at its peak. "This place was a mess," recalled Colonel
Filipp Hachirov, commander of the Ossetian battalion. "Problems were
solved exclusively with weapons - and every home had plenty of those."

Today, the peacekeepers' operations are usually limited to breaking up
street fights or tackling gangland shootings. The region is still
extremely sensitive. Ossetian and Georgian villages live side by side
in South Ossetia and a routine household quarrel can provoke a major
ethnic conflict.

One recent clash erupted over the water supply. The pipe bringing
water to Tskhinval and the Ossetian villages in the nearby valley is
fed by a source in a mountainous area populated mostly by Georgians.
These villagers felt entitled to take as much as they needed for their
agriculture, which reduced the supply to the Ossetians in the valley.
Peacekeepers were forced to intervene to stop a full-scale armed
conflict, and one unit later removed all unauthorised water outlets
connected to the main pipe.

The peacekeepers' tasks in South Ossetia are very different to those
of their Russian counterparts patrolling the divide between Georgia
and the breakaway province of Abkhazia. As South Ossetia remains
ethnically mixed, there is no dividing line here.

"My mother cried when she learned they were sending me to South
Ossetia," said Private Edik Voronov, of the Russian battalion. "I told
her not to worry. There has been no shooting here in ten years."

Voronov, from Rostov in southern Russia, speaks highly of his time in
the region. "The people are very friendly and treat us well. The
locals always smile and make you feel your service is appreciated.
This feels good."

Major General Vasily Prizemlin, commander of the Joint Peacekeeping
Force, said the current priority was to track down and confiscate
illegal weapons held by locals. As they have no powers to search
property, the peacekeepers have devised an ingenious method to
encourage villagers to dismantle their armouries. In a joint
initiative with the OSCE entitled A Farewell to Arms, they are
offering home appliances or office equipment of equal value to anyone
handing in their guns.

Givi Gugutsidze, chief of the Georgian battalion, said the move will
encounter problems, "Fighting apart, hunting and game shooting are
very popular sports here. The locals prize their weapons and will not
part with them easily."

Some locals surrender their arms without seeking compensation.
Peacekeepers tell of a young man who recently handed in a Mukha
grenade launcher that he had hidden in a couch in his flat. On one
occasion an electricity surge caused his television set to catch fire
right next to the couch where his grandmother lay sleeping.
Thankfully, the blaze was soon brought under control - otherwise the
weapon might have gone off and caused enormous damage and loss of
life.

The peacekeepers remain optimistic, even though they know that the
weapons handed in by the locals are not the only ones they possess.
"Even if a man surrenders one of his two submachine guns, that's still
progress," said Prizemlin.

Political leaders on both sides agree the mission has been a great
triumph on all levels. Georgia's OSCE envoy Michael Lacombe describes
it as "singularly successful and productive", while Prizemlin adds,
"The South Ossetian peacekeeping mission is one of the few thriving
ones."

For all its achievements, the mission is unlikely to leave soon. Its
mandate means it must remain in the area until the conflict is fully
resolved.

For now, the issue that sparked the struggle - the status of the
self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia - remains unresolved and
there is nothing the peacekeepers can do about it. "A settlement is up
to the politicians," said Colonel Gugutsidze of the Georgian
battalion. "Our mission is to follow orders. We'll leave when we're
ordered to but I think we still have work to do here."

Inga Kochieva is a journalist with the newspaper Molodyozh Osetii in
Tskhinval

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