US concerned by woman’s death in occupied Tskhinvali, urges for reopening of closed ‘checkpoints’
Acting US Ambassador to Georgia Elisabeth Rood has responded to the recent death of a woman in the occupied Tskhinvali region. Photo: netgazeti.
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Acting US Ambassador to Georgia Elisabeth Rood says that the US is concerned by the recent death of a woman in Georgia’s Russian-occupied Tskhinvali region due to closed crossing points and urged for the reopening of the so-called checkpoints by the occupation forces.
Margo Martiashvili, 70, who lived in the Russian-controlled Akhalgori district, suffered a stroke and died in Tskhinvali hospital on October 28 as her relatives were unable to transport her to the Tbilisi-controlled territory via the shortest, so-called Razdakhani crossing point, due to its closure.
The de facto government of Tskhinvali closed crossing points to the rest of Georgia starting September 4, promising to reopen them only after Tbilisi removes an ordinary police post from the village of Chorchana, Khashuri municipality, located on the Tbilisi-controlled territory.
The woman who has died in Tskhinvali is among those tragically dead in the region like David Basharuli, Giga Otkhozoria, Irakli Kvaratskhelia and others,” Rood said.
She stated that the reopening of the crossing points is important not only from the medical point of view, but also economic and humanitarian.
Georgian Foreign Ministry David Zalkaliani has stated that the humanitarian crisis in Georgia’s Russian-occupied regions [of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali] is one of the major challenges for the government, responding to the recent death of a woman in Tskhinvali due to the closed ‘checkpoint” with the breakaway region. He again raised the issue while meeting with the US Department of States Special Envoy and Coordinator of the Global Engagement Center Lea Gabrielle earlier today.
EU Ambassador to Georgia Carl Hartzell says that the death of 70-year-old Margo Martiashvili, who suffered a stroke in the Russian-occupied Akhalgori district and was unable to be transported to the Tbilisi-administered territory because of the closed “checkpoints” with Tskhinvali, is “tragic, and we are doing our best for the crossing points to be reopened.”
The European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) offers its “sincere condolences” for the “unfortunate death” of Margo Martiashvili, who suffered a stroke in the Russian-controlled Akhalgori district yesterday.
Deputy Secretary-General of the European External Action Service Jean-Christophe Belliard has joined the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) patrols in the Chorchana-Tsnelisi area today
60-year-old woman Tamar Gigauri fell into a well of seven meters deep in Georgia’s Russian- occupied Akhalgori district yesterday, but the Tskhinvali occupation regime is not allowing her family to transfer the woman to a Tbilisi hospital. Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, Georgian Minister of Reconciliation and Civil Equality, urged all decision-making bodies to guide by humanitarian principles and not to endanger the health of the injured woman from Akhalgori region.
Tbilisi and the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) have strongly denied reports by the de facto government of Georgia's Russian-occupied Tskhinvali region regarding shooting at the occupation line. De facto security committee of Tskhinvali has stated earlier today that an “armed conflict” took place between the personnel of the Georgian Interior Ministry and the residents of the Koda village [Khashuri municipality, under Tbilisi control] on November 5.