Latvian Justice Minister visits Georgian village divided by barbed wire
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A Latvian high official is in Georgia and learning about the challenges facing locals at the occupation line separating Georgia with one of it's breakaway regions.
Today Latvia's Justice Minister and Georgia's Minister of Corrections visited the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL) near occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region.
The two high officials met locals of Khurvaleti village, who were stranded behind barbed wire fences installed by Russian occupant troops to divide the country.
The Latvian and Georgian officials visit Khurvaleti village. Photo by Georgia’s Corrections Ministry press office.
"I was here seven years ago within the NATO Parliamentary Assembly delegation and nothing has changed since then,” said Latvia's Dzintars Rasnacs.
After seeing the challenges facing the village locals, Rasnacs said:
I think we should express our support for the territorial integrity of the Eastern Partner countries – Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova – in a stronger way.”
We should believe that this support will bring tangible results sooner or later.”
Georgia’s Corrections Minister Kakha Kakhishvili shakes the hand of a Khurvaleti village resident. Photo by the Ministry’s press office.
Georgia's Corrections Minister Kakha Kakhishvili told his Latvian guest about the problems facing the Georgian citizens who lived near the ABL and the continuing violations of human rights in the occupied area.
In the 21st Century we witnessed their installation of illegal barbed wire fences across our territory and they says this land is theirs,” Kakhishvili said.
We use many international tools to protest this reality and I believe we will achieve de-occupation of our territory.”
The Latvian Justice Minister said he would inform the Chief Prosecutor of the Hague International Criminal Court about the situation in Georgia’s occupied regions at the Court's upcoming meeting in Riga, Lativa's capital.
In Khurvaleti village, standing before the barbed wire fences installed by Russian occupants to divide the country, Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili said "the occupation wall would be soon destroyed like the Berlin Wall.”
European officials have come face-to-face with the harsh reality facing dozens of locals when they visited a village along the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL) between Russian-occupied Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia) and the rest of Georgia.
Permanent representatives of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) have faced a harsh reality when they visited a village along the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL) between Russian-occupied Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia) and the rest of Georgia today.
Georgia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has hosted a diplomatic tour, where non-resident and resident Ambassadors accredited in Georgia visited the occupation line and found themselves facing barbed wire fences.