For the first time the self-proclaimed Georgian republic is hosting September 18-19 a Congress of All-Ossetian Peoples, which has been held previously in the capital of neighboring North Ossetia, and on September 20 the republic will celebrate Independence Day.
"Georgia decided to postpone this so called peace march to Tskhinvali until September 20 after we implemented preventive measures," Minister Mikhail Mindzayev said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
Georgia initially planned the peace march to Tskhinvali for September 18-19 and Minister Mindzayev said South Ossetian law enforcement bodies were put on a heightened security regime to ensure public order during the congress.
"On top of it all, we have forces in reserve to prevent the so called peace march," the minister said.
Last Friday the Russian Foreign Ministry urged Tbilisi in a statement to give up the idea of the peace march, saying it could escalate tensions.
"This act attempts to present official Georgian propaganda as some kind of civic initiative, which it is not. Such contrivances in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone are extremely dangerous given the current situation," the ministry said.
South Ossetia, which declared its independence from Georgia following a bloody conflict that left hundreds dead in the early 1990s, is a sensitive issue in relations between Georgia and Russia. Georgian authorities are seeking to bring it back under their control, and have accused Russia, which has peacekeepers in the area, of encouraging separatist elements.
Georgia has set up a working group comprising Georgian officials and members of South Ossetia's Tbilisi-installed 'alternative government,' and says its offer will be based on the autonomy model of South Tyrol, an ethnically-mixed German-Italian region.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the organizers of the Georgian march could be planning the following scenario: firstly, clashes will be instigated between marchers and South Ossetian locals and peacekeepers, and then the Georgian-appointed head of the puppet South Ossetian administration, Dmitry Sanakoyev, will call on Tbilisi to establish order, after which "plans for a military resolution to the conflict, long nurtured by the Georgian side, will be started."
The dispute over South Ossetia began with a 1991-1992 armed conflict that followed the province's secession from newly-independent Georgia. South Ossetian officials have repeatedly called for the republic's recognition by Moscow, with subsequent admission to the Russian Federation.
