Georgian ombudsman calls infringement of Ossetians' rights on ethnical grounds as "total absurdity"

Georgian ombudsman Sozar Subari calls infringement of Ossetians' rights on ethnical grounds in Georgia as "total absurdity". He claimed this in an interview to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on December 5 while commenting on the South Ossetia statement on the possible increase in the flow of refugees to South Ossetia from Georgia.

"It is a total absurdity that, for instance, Ossetians' rights are violated on the ethnic grounds in Georgia. Indeed, there are problems in protecting human rights in Georgia, but not in this sphere",  stated Subari. 

The Georgian ombudsman thinks that talking about forcefully displaced persons is still more absurd. "Certain cases are cited in the submitted information. Probably, these 50 families have or have not resettled for their own reasons, we have no information on them, but there are tens of thousands of forcefully displaced persons in Georgia, whose houses have been pulled down. You can see it with your own eyes. It happens in the gorges of Big Liakhva, Avnevi, Pronsloye, etc., there are many villages there", he notes.

Sozar Subari thinks the claim that Ossetians have problems with going to Russia or South Ossetia is "simply a  misunderstanding".

"There are problems with going to Russia both among ethnical Ossetians and other citizens of Georgia because, firstly, Russia has introduced a visa regime and, secondly, visas are hardly issued today. As regards to the exit of 2000 people across the Upper Lars, the Lars gorge has been closed for more than three years now", says Subari.

The ombudsman explains that the mountain check-point "Upper Lars" on the Georgian Military highway which connects Russia and Georgia was closed by the Russian party in July 2006 till 2008 for planned reconstruction, and the Georgian party has repeatedly called upon the RF authorities to reconsider their decision to close the traffic across the "Upper Lars" check-point on the Russian-Georgian border.