Tbilisi demands works at Georgian border with Abkhazia, South Ossetia be stopped
TBILISI. Oct 10 (Interfax) - Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze said on Thursday, when speaking at a meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), that she urged Russia to stop building fences at the border in Abkhazia and the Tskhinval region.
"I want to express my utmost concern over the critical situation in the occupied regions of Georgia, Abkhazia and the Tskhinval region, where Russian occupation forces have been installing barbed wire fences with particular intensity since January 2013 along the occupation line in the Tskhinval region," Panjikidze was quoted as saying in Georgian media reports.
The construction of the fences considerably complicates the life of local residents, limiting their freedom of movement and contact with relatives, who are on the other side of the border, she said.
Sixty-five families have found themselves in such a position and some of them were forced to leave their homes, the minister said.
Russia continues the militarization of the "occupied" regions and does not fulfill its obligations as part of the international community, Panjikidze said.
Panjikidze said he called for the restoration of an OSCE mission with a mandate to monitor the situation in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.