When I approach the handful of Ossetians waiting at the checkpoint to cross over into South Ossetia, I get an unexpected answer: Actually, they are not interested in independence for South Ossetia.
"We want to be a part of Russia," said a taxi driver waiting for a fare at the checkpoint, who was too nervous of the Georgian police milling nearby to give his name.
The fact is, as the taxi driver went on to explain, South Ossetians have been basically part of Russia for the past 12 years. More than half of the population holds Russian passports. Pretty much everyone has relatives in Russia. Russian is spoken in South Ossetia as much as Ossetian and rubles are the favored currency.
They have another reason for feeling an attachment to Russia. Their ethnic brethren, the North Ossetians, live just over the border in their own autonomous republic in Russia. They claim that the two halves of Ossetia were only split up when Soviet dictator Josef Stalin (a Georgian) decided to redraw the maps.
"There used to be two Germanies but they reunited them," the taxi driver said. "Why can't they do the same with North and South Ossetia? Is that really so much to ask?"
Besides, why would they want to be part of a Georgia that until recently has not even been able to pay pensions on time? "Georgia hasn't lifted a finger for us for years," said one ethnic Ossetian woman at the crossing. http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/07/13/010.html
UK troops sent to Georgia on secretive mission: paper
www.chinaview.cn 2004-07-15 18:50:33
LONDON, July 15 (Xinhuanet) -- British troops have been in Georgiaon a secretive training mission at a time when the Georgian government is engaged in a standoff with Russian troops in the separatist enclave of South Ossetia, the British Times newspaper reported on Thursday.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who began his visit to Britain on Tuesday, disclosed that Britain was a vital source of military assistance to his country, the paper said.
"We just had last week joint training of British special forcestogether with the Georgian Army," the paper quoted Saakashvili as saying during his official visit to Britain.
The paper also quoted the British Ministry of Defense as sayingthat a light infantry detachment was taking part with Georgian commandos in an exercise that would last until the end of this week.
According to the paper, Saakashvili also disclosed that BritishGeneral Garry Johnson was permanently based in the Georgian Defense Ministry to coordinate additional military assistance.
The revelation is likely to be seen in Moscow as further evidence that some key member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are deliberately encouraging Tbilisi to challenge Russia's dominance in the region, the paper said.
South Ossetia, a breakaway region on Russia's southern border, won de facto independence from Georgia following a bloody war thatended in 1992. It has repeatedly refused to hold reunification talks with the Georgian central government and sought to become part of Russia.
A joint peacekeeping force, composed of Russian, Georgian and South Ossetian troops, has been patrolling a conflict area betweenGeorgia and South Ossetia since then, but tensions between Georgiaand South Ossetia have mounted in recent months.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who came to power aftera landslide victory in the presidential elections in January, has vowed to reunify the country by bringing South Ossetia and anotherrebel region, Abkhazia, back under control.
Georgia accuses Russia of aiding South Ossetian separatists, but Russia insists that it respects Georgia's territorial integrity and does not support the attempt of South Ossetia, whoseindependence has not been internationally recognized. Enditem
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
