Creeping occupation and illegal detention of Georgians: what are the figures for 2018?
The two Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali are occupied by Russia. Photo: N.Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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92 Georgian citizens have been illegally detained for crossing the so-called border of occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region this year – the same figure for the breakaway region of Abkhazia amounted to 25, the Georgian State Security Service told Agenda.ge.
The agency also reported that the Russian creeping occupation of Georgian territory started in 2011 and the process continued this year as well.
The creeping occupation has been in progress since 2011 and it has been revealed through the erection of illegal barbed-wire fences, digging so-called anti-fire canals and the erection of other artificial barriers,” the State Security Service reported.
This year, Russia controlled individuals dug so-called anti-fire canals along the whole occupation line with Tskhinvali. Artificial barriers have been erected near the villages of Dvani in October and Atotsi in November,” the agency stated.
The State Security Service said that occupants also made an illegal occupation line in the village of Khurcha, near Abkhazia region.
The European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM), the only international monitoring presence in Georgian [with no access to occupied regions] has confirmed that “significant borderisation activities have been taking place in the area of the Georgian villages of Atotsi (Balta) since early November 2018.”
Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze has stated that the government will not tolerate neither old nor new barbed wire fences on its historic land, responding to the erection of new barbed wire fences by occupants at the village of Atotsi near the occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region.
Georgian Minister of Reconciliation and Civil Equality Ketevan Tsikhelashvili has come to the Atotsi village of Kareli municipality today, where occupants are erecting new barbed wire fences and stated that through this step, Russia is isolating the Tskhinvali region from the outside world and is creating “unbearable” conditions for ethnic Ossetians.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry has condemned the erection of new illegal barbed wire fences at the villages of Atotsi and Balta of the Kareli municipality, near the country’s occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region in the eastern part of Georgia.
Russian occupants have released a Georgian citizen Otar Samniashvili who was illegally detained yesterday in the village of Khurvaleti, near the occupation line with breakaway Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region for “illegally crossing the border.”
Occupying forces have detained a cleric, Father David Durglishvili, near the village of Nikozi, next to the occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region of Georgia. The illegal detention took place yesterday evening, when occupying forces claim the cleric “illegally crossed the [so-called] border”.
Occupying forces have detained two Georgian citizens for “illegally crossing the border” earlier today near the occupation line with the breakaway Abkhazia region, the Georgian State Security Service has confirmed.
The occupying forces in the two Russia-controlled Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) have detained 327 Georgian citizens for “illegally crossing the border” between 2017 and 2019, the Georgian State Security Service says. The agency reports that 242 of 327 were detained for “illegally crossing the border” between Georgia and its eastern occupied Tskhinvali region.
Georgian citizen, Guladi Khubua, who was illegally detained by occupying forces at the occupation line with the breakaway Abkhazia region for “illegally crossing the border” was released yesterday.
Amnesty International says that the attempts to physically demarcate a boundary between Georgia’s occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) and the rest of Georgia by Russia and the regions’ de facto authorities have led to severe human rights violations.