Saakashvili Visits South Ossetian Conflict Zone

President Saakashvili traveled in the South Ossetian conflict zone, where he met with the local population of the Georgian village of Tamarasheni on January 2.

Tamarasheni is less than a kilometer away from the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali.

?I want to tell those on the territories temporarily controlled by separatists. We are ready to rehabilitate schools, roads and hospitals, as we have done on our controlled territories, without any preconditions. Now it is up to you to decide: you can either give a chance those indistinct people [referring to secessionist leaders] to refuse this proposal or to improve your life together with the rest of the population of Georgia,? Saakashvili said.

Saakashvili arrived in Tamarasheni through a by-pass road. The main road to the village, which is north of Tskhinvali, runs through the South Ossetian capital. The by-pass road, which is controlled by the Georgian side, is often used to reach the Georgian villages in the north of Tskhinvali.
 
?We need no by-pass roads and we should travel through direct roads. This kind of situation has been very protracted, but this situation is very temporary? We have peaceful intentions? There will not even be a square meter territory of lawlessness in Georgia,? Saakashvili said.

Saakashvili also visited another Georgian village of Achabeti in the conflict zone where a Georgian peacekeeping battalion is stationed.

Meanwhile, Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili was in Tbilisi-controlled upper Kodori Gorge in breakaway Abkhazia on January 2 to celebrate New Year with an Interior Ministry unit deployed there. ?These [policemen] are protecting Georgia here,? Merabishvili told reporters.

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