Saakashvili creates temporary Ossetia

The Russian interdepartmental working group led by Assistant to the Prime Minister Gennady Bukaev will begin today to get acquainted with the situation in the zone of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict . Moscow, in particular, is interested in how its assistance is spent on the restoration of various facilities. Vremya Novostei sources in Tskhinvali reported that with Russian funding, several medical facilities, a concert and sports hall, and a school have already been restored in recent months.

Yesterday, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili announced his readiness to allocate money for South Ossetia. In his opinion, this can be done as part of the implementation of his initiative to create a temporary administrative unit in the former autonomous region, and now an unrecognized republic. Speaker Nino Burjanadze said that parliament is ready to consider the president’s legislative initiative on “the creation of a temporary administrative unit in the Tskhinvali region, as well as amendments to the state budget related to this initiative.”

The corresponding bill will be prepared by May 1, the Georgian parliament told VN. Ossetians who are ready to cooperate with Tbilisi will initially be allocated deputy positions in Georgian ministries with emergency mandates. After an agreement on the status of South Ossetia within Georgia, Ossetians will receive even higher positions. The leadership of the unrecognized republic of South Ossetia and the Russian Foreign Ministry have repeatedly spoken out against the creation of “alternative” temporary administrations in the Tskhinvali region.

Mikhail VIGNANSKY, Tbilisi