Nov. 13, 2006

Independence Begins
// The referendum in South Ossetia

Presidential elections and a referendum were held in South Ossetia yesterday. In spite of the fact that they were accompanied by a disconnection of communications and a closure of the roads, the elections were declared valid. Current leader Eduard Kokoity was reelected and was the most-mentioned person on Russian television yesterday. Thus, observers from the Russian State Duma say, the “recognition process” for South Ossetia has begun, to be followed by Abkhazia and Transdniestria. Kommersant special correspondent Olga Allenova has the details.
Polling Station Overlooking a Cemetery

South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity came to vote with his two sons and wife. He shook hands with Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine representative Natalia Vitrenko. He declared that “I have voted for the independence of South Ossetia” to general applause. Outside the window of the school that was being used as a polling station, the graveyard of victims of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict was visible. Kokoity was met by children with flags and women with pies after voting and told journalists that the alternative vote being held in the Georgian-controlled part of South Ossetia was “the death throes of the authoritarian Saakashvili regime.”

Kokoity was confident of his victory. The day before, former chairman of the supreme court of South Ossetia Alan Parastaev had given himself up to law enforcement after announcing on local television Saturday night that Georgia had paid $200,000 for Kokoity's assassination. South Ossetian KGB head Nikolay Dolgopolov had been dismissed two days before that. Rumor has it that Kokoity had to travel to Moscow to get rid of Dolgopolov. Even though the European Union had informed the South Ossetian Foreign Ministry that it would not recognize the referendum, international observers came for the event. According to the Foreign Ministry, there were 28 observers from 11 European and Latin American countries. Three of those countries were Abkhazia, Transdniestria and Nagorny Karabakh. Members of the so-called Interparliamentary Assembly of Member States of the Community for Democracy and Nation's Rights were also present. That organization was founded by Modest Kolerov, a member of the Russian presidential administration, and had been active in the referendum in Transdniestria also.

I spoke with Alexey Martynov, executive secretary of that organization. “There was a precedent in history.” he told me, “Two hundred years ago, a motley group of adventurers declared the North American States and not one state in the world recognized them. The Russian Empire was the first state to recognize them. Do you understand what I am talking about? And now Russia is in essence recognizing South Ossetia, but so far only in a light form.”

“How's that?” I asked.

“Aren't issuing Russian passports and giving economic aid forms of recognition? A gas pipeline is being built from North Ossetia to South Ossetia. Russian cellular communications work here. Then there will be recognition for political institutions, a permanent Russian consul, and so on.”

The South Ossetian Central Elections Commission declared the elections valid at 3:00, when 64 percent of the population had voted. Only the lack of cellular connections since the morning and the closure of the road from the Georgian-controlled village of Avnevi to the Ossetian village of Mugut, where a polling station had been set up, cast a shadow over the day. The Ossetians said that Georgian special forces were blocking the road to Mugut. The Georgians said the Ossetians were blocking the road to prevent the residents of Avnevi from voting against independence.

Freedom Venezuelan-Style

Observers from Spain, Venezuela, Latvia, Germany and Austria, as well as from the three other unrecognized post-Soviet states, came to the elections press center in the course of the day. “We want to help you,” Spanish head of the International Institute for Election Monitoring Manuel Garcia told Ossetian journalists. Socialist Latvian parliament member Sergey Fedorov promised that his report on the elections would be heard, “but I do not represent the Latvian leadership,” he added.

Venezuelan National Assembly member Luis Tascon Gutierrez was an official representative of his country. He was very cautious with his statements, but promised that “Our leader Hugo Chavez will make the right decision” on recognizing South Ossetian independence.

Freedom with a Slight Georgian Accent

It has been quiet in the Georgian villages of South Ossetia. The Georgians were not expected to vote in the alternative referendum out of fear of provocations, but the month-long pre-election campaign on Georgian television had an effect and voters showed u at the polls in Akhalgori district and the Georgian enclave of South Ossetia. By midday, 60.8 percent of voters had participated in the elections. That is 5780 people.

“We didn't expect people to take such active part,” chairman of the alternative Central Elections Commission Uruzmag Karkusov told me. “They blocked our communications so we couldn't receive voting results and blocked villages so people couldn't vote, but people went any way. Those people have been deprived of the right to vote for many years, they didn't count and they were afraid of everything.”

Chairman of the South Ossetian Central Elections Commission Bela Plieva told me that the ethnic Georgians were given a chance to vote. “Since only South Ossetian citizens vote, our Interior Ministry asked the Georgian population to receive passports in good time. Some Georgians got them and now they will vote. We even made a ballot in Georgian for them. But the main part of the Georgian population is afraid to take part in our elections.”

The main new in the alternative referendum was the change in the question. The vote was on the question “Do you agree that the Republic of South Ossetia should begin negotiations with Georgia on a federative state structure?” Initially, the referendum question had been about independence. “The Republic of South Ossetia was not mentioned in the first version,” Karkusov commented. “Now it is explicitly written that there is a Republic of South Ossetia and it may join Georgia with broad autonomy. Thus we have taken a step toward European civilization.”

Georgian authorities showed active support for presidential candidate Dmitry Sanakoev, so there was little doubt that he would win in the alternative election and thus be able to hold negotiations with Georgia. He is likely to be acknowledge by Tbilisi as the legitimate leader of South Ossetia. Sanakoev told me two days before the elections that he agreed to the alternative elections because he thought that Russia was deceiving the South Ossetians with its promise to recognize the republic. “The people of South Ossetia have been saying that they are independent and want to join Russia for 16 years. Russia has no intention of violating the territorial integrity of Georgia and the division of power in the world is such that no one will let it do it. As long as the territory is illegitimate, militarized, there will be no economic development and people will live on the brink of starvation.”

The alternative elections are necessary to prevent South Ossetia from being recognized in the same manner as Kosovo. “They found an Ossetian candidate but he cannot represent the Ossetian people because he has betrayed their interests,” Chairman of the South Ossetian Elections Commission Murat Dzhoiev said. Members of the Russian State Duma who came for the referendum agreed with Dzhoiev. “The alternative elections cannot be called anything but a farce,” said deputy chairman of the Duma Defense Committee Mikhail Babich said. “About 60,000 people took part in the South Ossetian elections, and about 6000 in the alternative elections.” Duma member Konstantin Zatulin said that the Duma would hold hearings on recognizing Abkhazia and the referendum results in Transdniestria and South Ossetia. “The time when Russia based it approach to settling the issues of the unrecognized republics based on Georgia's territorial integrity has passed,” Zatulin said.

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