BRUSSELS, June 5 (RIA Novosti) – Setting up wire fences along the South Ossetian-Georgia border is a totally unacceptable violation of international rights, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday.
“Building such fences is a violation of international law and of the 2008 agreements,” he told a closing press conference following the meetings of NATO defense ministers.
“Building fences impedes freedom of movement. It can further inflame tensions,” he added. “It is simply not acceptable, and we urge Russia to live up to her international obligations.”
He said earlier in the day that NATO was closely watching events in Georgia after Tbilisi accused Russia last week of setting up the wire fences.
Rasmussen reiterated the alliance’s support for Georgia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty within its internationally recognized borders. He also pledged that Georgia would one day become a NATO member.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry said last week that Russian border guards had installed barbed-wire fences along Georgia’s border with the disputed region of South Ossetia and had even pushed the border line inside Georgia.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry condemned on Monday what is said were attempts “to heat up the situation” on the border between South Ossetia and Georgia with an eye to the election campaign in Georgia, and “shifting the blame” to Russia.
Under an interstate agreement with Russia signed on April 30, 2009, South Ossetia delegated its border protection functions to Russia until the republic established its own border guard service. South Ossetia’s border with Georgia is about 210 miles (350 km) long.
Georgia lost control over a fifth of its territory when South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another former republic within Georgia, broke away and were recognized by Moscow in the wake of a brief war with Russia in August 2008. Georgia maintains its claim to sovereignty over both regions, which have only been recognized by a handful of other states besides Russia.
Both regions had enjoyed de facto independence since the early 1990s, following earlier separatist conflicts with Georgia. Georgia repeatedly accused Moscow of aiding separatist movements in Abkhazia and South Ossetia at that time, which Moscow denied.
