Ossetian ghost towns to house Georgian refugees

21 September, 2008, 00:07

The South Ossetian government fears that Ossetians living in Georgia are in danger of being evicted in the coming months. Tskhinval says Tbilisi is hoping to use the vacated homes to house Georgian refugees.

For hundreds of years, Ossetians and Georgians have lived in each other’s countries. However, during the 1991 war, many Ossetians were forced to leave their homes in Georgia under threat of slaughter.

There are three Ossetian villages in the Karelsky district in the middle of Georgia, not far from Gori, and one of them, Geoba, is completely empty.

The ghost town has become a solution to the Georgian refugee problem, changing the demography of the region once again.

Georgian villager Givi Gabarashvili is preparing a plot of land that once belonged to Ossetians. They fled north a decade ago, seeking safety and a new life in Russia's North Ossetia. The plot will soon have new tenants – Georgian refugees.

“People have been coming to look at the house. The Georgian government is trying to put Georgian refugees in these empty homes,” said Gabarashvili.

The new Georgian residents will arrive in the next few weeks and, while they will have new homes, the Ossetians living in these villages could soon find themselves the new refugees of this Caucasian tragedy.

Makieva Dali, an Ossetian woman with a Georgian husband, says she is worried for her future.

“If the government wants to kick us out of here, they can go ahead and do it. I have nothing to lose. I will be the first to go. Anyway, the government doesn’t care about our villages. Our situation cannot get worse,” she says.