Tskhinvali/Agency Caucasus – After Russia flew its warplanes over South Ossetia to intimidate Georgia, the administration in Russia received a provocative response from South Ossetia.
Whether South Ossetia was recognized as independent or not, it would continue to affirm its willingness to join North Ossetia, a country that is part of Russia, said Tarzan Kokoiti, Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of South Ossetia: "If the Kremlin does not bring a solution to the issue of South Ossetia, Washington will do it."
Kokoiti told reporters as a news conference on Wednesday that South Ossetia could join North Ossetia even without Russia recognizing the independence of South Ossetia: "There is a special program needed to do this. The Kremlin is normally supposed to protect the people of South Ossetia from danger; however, quite the reverse is happening; while Georgia attacks us, we cannot have the total strength to respond to it."
Asked to comment on how it could be possible for South Ossetia to join North Ossetia when it was not recognized, Kokoiti replied: "It could be done by protecting the public from danger, by deploying troops in the south, by closing the border with Georgia and by initiating the process of integration… Integration can be useful in helping the two countries combine even though South Ossetia does not get recognized as an independent state. A transparent border can be formed in the residential area of Nar, a region on the border between North and South Ossetia, and the administration of a United Ossetia can be set up so as to use its own seal and emblem."
"If Russia does not take action to keep the people safe, we cannot keep them safe either, and this leads to the result of everything breaking down at once. We are now faced up with the sheer question of who will protect us against the attacks from Georgia. Russia does not want to go to war for us and the peace-keeping forces are not functional any more. If the Kremlin does not bring a solution to this problem, the White House in Washinton will do it."
While South Ossetia had been strong enough to efficiently fight back when it had been attacked in the early 1990s, said Kokoiti, it now lacked the strength to do the same thing.
President Taymuraz Mamsurov of North Ossetia claimed early this week that the Western policymakers proposed that South Ossetia should combine with North Ossetia to form an independent state. RE/ÖZ/FT
