Vladikavkaz/Agency Caucasus – The Civilian Assembly of Russia held a meeting in Vladikavkaz, capital of North Ossetia, with a view towards maintaining peace and stability across North Caucasus.
The Archbishop Feofan of Stavropol and Vladikavkaz made an inaugural speech. He said that a group of peace workers were formed within the Civilian Assembly to be active in North Caucasus. He dismissed the news media as being wrong to call the Caucasus ‘a boiling pot’ when he said that he never feared making visits to North Caucasus.
Taymuraz Kasayev, North Ossetia’s Minister of National Affairs, was another person who contributed to the meeting with his words: "I think there are positive changes that have inevitably taken place in North Caucasus in recent years. The civilians have a significant role to play in this regard. The state institutions of North Ossetia try to set up a positive civilian direction to take, because North Ossetia is geopolitically of central importance to the Caucasus. Almost everything that takes place here affects the whole Caucasian regions."
It was proposed at the meeting that the term ‘the Caucasian lobby’ should be used.
Boris Basayev, President of Stir Nihas, the civilian assembly of Ossetia, was among the people who spoke at the meeting. Basayev touched upon the issue of refugees, a problem that has remained from the war between Ossetia and Georgia as a source of constant tension between the people. "The issue of refugees is quite serious in Ossetia. The situation is that there are a lot of refugees that came from Georgia and Central Asia to the small republic; unfortunately their standards of living remain poor. Financially, North Ossetia is not well equipped to bring a solution to this sociologically as well as politically serious question."
Basayev made a request to Feofan to convey to the Russian administration that the refugees not only in North Caucasus but also in the entire regions of North Caucasus suffer from serious setbacks. Basayev also spoke about South Ossetia, from where he returned on July 18. While he expressed Russia’s approval of resuming negotiations, he also said that the issue of Abkhazia and South Ossetia should be approached peacefully.
KU/ÖZ/FT
