Word: ossetian
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...Teiran Bestayev, 50, a resident of the neighboring Ossetian village of Dmenisi is unrepentant. "Now we are over here and they are over there," he says, waving vaguely towards Gori, Georgia's second largest city, which lies just a few dozen miles to the south down the broad valley below. "They have Georgia and we have South Ossetia and that's how it should be." (Read: "One Year On, Could Russia and Georgia Fight Another...
...Most people in this village of 1,000 ethnic Ossetians would probably agree. Before the war, says Bestayev, local villagers had to present passports and undergo searches when they traveled through Eredvi on the way to the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali about six miles (9.7 km) away. "Maybe those idiots will start shooting again," he said, again motioning towards Georgia, "but that would be their last shot. Our side of the border is much stronger...
...what the soldiers might have to fight is hard to pin down. Although claims abound of cross-border grenade and mortar attacks, Bestayev, the Ossetian villager from Dmenisi, said he had not heard or seen any incidents at the base of the foothills that mark the border. The soldiers sitting by their armored personnel carrier make a vague claim they had had mortars fired on them a week ago, but that the shots were uphill and off the mark. A lieutenant who has served six years in the border guards said he had not seen any attacks with...
...South Ossetian government claims the uptick in cross-border shooting is real and dangerous. "Practically every day, unfortunately, the Georgians are shooting into South Ossetia," says Alan Pliyev, the first deputy minister of the South Ossetian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "They have been breaking the cease-fire organized by President Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the end of the war last year." Georgia has repeatedly denied shooting into South Ossetia and blames the Russian buildup for the rising tensions. (See pictures of the Russians in Ossetia...
...year on, buildings throughout the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, where the majority of the fighting took place, remain demolished, and thousands of people are still displaced on both sides of the border. Russia has pledged $640 million in aid for reconstruction, while Tbilisi owes $4.5 billion to the West in postwar aid and loans. Since the end of the war, 240 unarmed European Union monitors have been patrolling the border on the Georgian side to ensure that the terms of the cease-fire brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy are not broken. But they have not been given access...