MP Guram Vakhtangashvili, who was elected in the South Ossetia’s Didi Liakhvi provincial constituency, which is mainly populated by an ethnic Georgian population, said at a Parliament session on October 26 that “intensive shelling” in the South Ossetian conflict area may force the local Georgian population to leave their homes.
“As a result of pressure from the Ossetian separatists, the number of internally displaced persons may increase by 25 thousand,” MP Guram Vakhtangashvili said.
Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze said in a response that “it is too hard to terrorize the Georgian population.” “We will not allow anyone to terrorize our population,” she added.
In October the residents of the Georgian villages of breakaway South Ossetia twice blocked the road connecting Tskhinvali, South Ossetia’s capital, with Java, a town in a northern part of the region, protesting against the frequent shootouts.
But the South Ossetian side blames the Georgian forces for opening fire.
Aleksandre Kiknadze, Commander of the Georgian battalion of the joint peacekeeping troops, told Civil Georgia on October 25 that two additional checkpoints of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces will be deployed in the South Ossetian conflict area, amid sporadic shootouts, which mainly occur during the nights.