Word: ossetians
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...Georgian and South Ossetian blood is very closely connected," says Fatima, 50, as she hems a pillowcase while sitting in the courtyard of her apartment building in the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali. "South Ossetian girls would marry Georgian boys and South Ossetian boys would marry Georgian girls. But today, today there is no connection - it's all been lost." South Ossetia, in northern Georgia, had been a source of tension long before Russia and Georgia fought their brutal five-day war over the region a year ago. Since then, South Ossetia has declared its independence, but Georgia refuses...
...Right after the conflict there were lots of requests from people seeking to be reunited with their families," says Marina Tedeti, spokeswoman for the ICRC operating in South Ossetia. Since the end of the war - and with the support of both the Georgian and the South Ossetian governments - the organization has brought 320 people back together with their families through what Tedeti calls "a small but quite delicate" process. (See pictures of the history of the Red Cross...
...reunifications can be wrenching affairs in such a confused atmosphere, as people come to realize that choosing between family members means having to choose whether to be Georgian or South Ossetian - in some cases, children find themselves forced to decide between one parent or another. "We repeatedly and clearly explain that this decision is final - now and forever," says Tedeti. "If they change their mind, they cannot come back...
...across the border and though the risks of crossing illegally are high, people still try. On July 31, a Georgian man was killed and his family members wounded when he drove their car over a mine while trying to bypass a checkpoint to get from Georgia into the South Ossetian-controlled village of Akhalgori. (See pictures of the Russians in Ossetia...
...international monitors could help to stabilize the situation here, Pliyev also says that his government is "working with and have an agreement with the Russian military for the defense of South Ossetia." In fact, observers from the European Union Monitoring Mission have been denied access to the South Ossetian side of the border to verify claims of attacks as well as to observe Russian troop increases. South Ossetia, nominally an independent state, is not going to make a move without Russia's consent. That's made clear by the 1,000 Russian troops bivouacked just outside the capital with more...