On the report made by Swedish parliamentarian Ms. Tina Acketoft
On 21 January 2013 winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) was opened. On 23 January Swedish parliamentarian Ms. Tina Aketoft made a report “Georgia and Russia: humanitarian situation in the conflict and war affected areas”.
Even the title of the report is not correct as it drifts the question into wrong direction, military aggression in August 2008 was against Republic of South Ossetia, therefore humanitarian issues should be studied not in the context of Georgia and Russian Federation but in the context of South Ossetia and Georgia. Consequently, the humanitarian character of the report is initially trapped by political ambitions.
State border between Georgian and South Ossetia is called administrative, territory of South Ossetia is therefore considered to be an occupied part of Georgia. This causes bewilderment in South Ossetia as Republic of South Ossetia is a sovereign state and has nothing to do with territory of Georgia. Parliamentarians of a respected organization like PACE , have to understand that until they consider the existing realities in the region, creation of two sovereign states – Republic of South Ossetia and Republic of Abkhazia, there will be no bases for solving the humanitarian issues. Despite numerous applications to PACE, asking for a tribune for representatives of South Ossetia, there is still no understanding.
The Swedish parliamentarian talked a lot about the Georgian refugees but left out of sight more than 100 000 Ossetians who fled in 1990-1992 Georgia and South Ossetia escaping from ethnic cleansing and aggression. Most part of those people found asylum in Russia, the others became refugees or IDPs in South Ossetia. Most of them are still displaced.
Presenting her report to the European parliamentarians, Ms. Aketoft noted that during two years of work over the report she had no access to the conflict area.
The rapporteur complained that during two years she was not able to visit South Ossetia and that access for her was blocked. However, she was not fully honest about the reasons of her canceled visit and therefore misled the international community. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of South Ossetia would like to state that Ms. Acketoft’s visit to South Ossetia was confirmed but later she changed her mind and canceled her visit for unknown reasons. Authorities of South Ossetia have stated a number of times that they are ready to cooperate with those international organizations that respect people of South Ossetia.
It is logical that before making a report one should at least study the situation, visit South Ossetia and work on the document on the spot. PACE rapporteurs usually limit themselves to visiting Tbilisi and presenting information received there as their own vision.
Tskhinval, 24 January 2013