Tskhinvali Says its Post in Perevi Prevents ‘Timber Export’

Official in breakaway South Ossetia said they have stationed its post in the village of Perevi to prevent “illegal export of timber.”
  
“The post of the South Ossetian law enforcement agencies has really been placed in Perevi to prevent illegal export of timber from the territory of South Ossetia,” Ibragim Gasseev, deputy defense minister of the breakaway region, said. “The village of Perevi is part of the Java District [of the breakaway region] and the Georgian side has nothing to do with it.”

“If anyone attempts to undertake any forceful actions against this post, the South Ossetian side, together with the Russian forces, which are stationed in South Ossetia based on the international agreement, will respond adequately,” he said.

He also added that the South Ossetian side would remove its posts from Perevi “when it deems it appropriate.”

Both Tbilisi and EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia have expressed concern over developments in the village of Perevi, where South Ossetian militias started to deploy over the weekend.

The village of Perevi is located on the western part of the South Ossetian administrative border. Currently administratively, the village is part of the Georgia’s Sachkhere district; but Russian forces refused to remove its checkpoint from the village as part of the withdrawal from the adjacent areas, citing that the village was part of the former Autonomous District of South Ossetia.

“The Russian forces in South Ossetia have persistently refused to dismantle this checkpoint, in spite of the fact that it is clearly located to the west of the administrative boundary line of South Ossetia,” EUMM said in the statement on November 8.

“EU monitors should better spend more time on providing security in the zones of their responsibility [reference to the areas adjacent to the breakaway region] from where shots are being permanently fired at the Ossetian villages,” Ibragim Gasseev said.

No violence has been reported from the village of Perevi, but there are reports that at least part of the local population there was leaving the village after the deployment of South Ossetian militias.

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