OSCE top official visits Georgian IDPs

One of Europe’s top human rights’ promoters has visited Khurvaleti, a Georgian village located at the border of Georgia’s breakaway Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia) and spoken with people who were forced from their homes by conflict.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) top official, Secretary General Lamberto Zannier, travelled to the country’s war-affected area within his three-day official visit to Georgia.

Lamberto Zannier visited #IDP settlement in Tserovani & demarcation line in Khurvaleti #Georgia#OccupiedTerritoriespic.twitter.com/YahPiWAYN4

— MFA of Georgia (@MFAgovge) March 9, 2015

In Khurvaleti, Zannier saw barbed wire fences installed by Russian soldiers on Georgian territory, near the so called Administrative Boundary Line with de-facto Tskhinvali. The fences caused major problems to local population as some of their gardens and cornfields were on the other side of the barbed wire fences, which they were forbidden to cross.

The OSCE top official spoke with the locals and listened to their problems.

After this he travelled to Tserovani, a settlement for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) near Tbilisi and visited those who were forced to leave their homes in Khurvaleti village after the Russia-Georgia 2008 war.

OSCE Secretary General Alberto Zannier in Tserovani, 09.03.3015. Photo credit: Georgia's Foreign Ministry

Meanwhile at the Tserovani IDP settlement, Zannier visited a local school and met a local family and learnt about the everyday struggles facing IDPs. The local family told him how survival meant they had to flee their native home.

The Global Overview 2014 report stated there were up to 206,600 IDPs registered in Georgia by the end of 2013. These people came from either Tskhinvali region or from Abkhazia, Georgia’s other Russian-occupied region.

According to the same report, some of the main issues facing Georgian IDPs were access to adequate housing, employment, and segregated education or lack of education for young IDPs.

After Zannier returned to Tbilisi, he discussed the IDPs' conditions with Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili. 

The two officials also talked about Russia's so called strategic partnership agreements with Abkhazia and Tskhinvali and Garibahsvili said Tbilisi assessed this move of Russia as an attempt to annex Georgian regions.