intimidating votes in S. Ossetia

http://www.day.az/news/georgia/149682.html

9 March 2009

Eduard Kokoity Intimidating Population in Controlled Territories

The separatist regime of South Ossetia is blackmailing and intimidating the local population, according to Georgian Parliamentary Deputy and “We Ourselves” party leader Paata Davitaia.

Commenting on the arrests by separatists of Akhalgori Middle School No. 3 teacher Tamara Charoeva and regional administration council chairman Givi Chigoev, Davitaia stated that “Kokoity’s authorities are using the support of the Russian occupation troops and blackmailing the local population.”

“The Russian occupation troops are standing behing them, and because of this Kokoity’s criminal authorities are trying to intimidate what remains of the Georgian population on that territory,” Davitaia stated.

As is known, Charoeva and Chigoev were arrested by Kokoity’s paramilitary bands and accused of treason. Both of the detainees are currently being held in a prison in Tskhinvali. The Tskhinvali regime has sentenced them to two months of preliminary detention for participating in elections for the provisional administration of the Tskhinvali region.

According to known information, Charoeva is in very poor health as she suffers from chronic asthma. The militants arrested her in the middle of a lesson in front of her pupils.

The Kokoity regime is continuing to carry out repressions against all the ethnic Ossetians who took part in the alternative elections in the region in 2006.