Ethnic Osetins from Georgia's Akhmetsky district strive to resettle to South Osetia

A group of Osetins living in the Akhmetsky district of Georgia arrived in South Osetia on March 18 to meet with authorities there. Osetins have been living in Kakhetia (Editor's note: Kakhetia is a historic region in Eastern Georgia) for over 200 years, there are more that 10 large Osetian villages there and a lot of small ones, some of which are situated right in the Pankissi Gorge. Recently, the Osetian population has been suffering persecution not only on the part of the local Kistins but on the part of the residents of local Georgian villages. The persecution has the form of concrete discrimination actions, legal arbitrariness towards the Osetins, lack of attention to the problems in social sphere. Refugees from the region have appeared as a result of all these. The first wave of refugees from Kakhetia appeared in 1991-1992, in the time of the Georgian-Osetian conflict. International organizations have already concerned themselves with the problem.

This situation is a matter of concern in South Osetia as well. For the last year, the republican leadership has been taking concrete measures to resettle residents of these villages to South Osetia.