South Ossetia: villagers demand to simplify access control

Due to the large volume of their everyday work, it is difficult for villagers to constantly check whether they have their passes with them; however, because of the absence of the passes, they may be treated as violators of the border. This was stated by participants of the action held in the near-border South-Ossetian village of Velit. Agents of the South Ossetian KGB answered the protestors that the above requirement was the order of the authorities.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that after his visit to the region, Thomas Melia, Assistant Administrator for Europe and Eurasia of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), had announced the need for free movement of villagers of South Ossetia and Georgia in the border zone. In South Ossetia, the Russian border guards are engaged in works on the arrangement of the border with Georgia. According to local residents, barbed wire runs right through the territory of the villagers.

On July 1, about 20 residents of the village of Velit of the Znaur District of South Ossetia organized the protest rally.

According to Venera, a participant of the protest action, in the village of Velit, people are mainly engaged in cattle breeding and the regime of restricted access interferes with their work.

Agents of the South Ossetian KGB tried to explain the protestors that the passes are "not a fancy of the border guards, but the execution of the government's decision."

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.