KHURVALETI, Georgia: Standing in a meadow in the sweltering heat and amid the chirping of grasshoppers, 84-year-old Dato Vanishvili looks through a barbed wire fence and sighs: “It’s like living in a prison, here.”
Around five years ago, the farmer woke up one morning to strange sounds outside his house.
When he looked out, he saw Russian soldiers erecting a barbed wire fence across his property, as the breakaway region of South Ossetia was physically separated from the rest of Georgia.
Vanishvili was trapped on the side of his village, Khurvaleti, that fell under the control of separatist South Ossetian authorities.
And ever since that morning in 2013, he has been unable to cross into Georgia.
Five years prior to that, in August 2008, Russia and Georgia had fought a five-day war over South Ossetia, a tiny enclave where Russia maintained a military base.
Georgia had launched a large-scale military operation against separatist forces who had been shelling Georgian villages in the region.
And over the five days that followed, Russia defeated Georgia’s small military, sweeping into the Black Sea nation of four million people, bombing targets and occupying large swathes of territory.
Russia then officially recognized South Ossetia, alongside another secessionist Georgian region, Abkhazia, where Moscow similarly had a military base.
Following the Russian invasion, Human Rights Watch accused Moscow of overseeing the “wide-scale pillaging and burning of Georgian homes and the killing, beating, rape and threatening of civilians” by South Ossetian forces.
Vanishvili is one of the few Georgians to remain in South Ossetia after the bloody conflict, as most of his family and relations were forced to flee in what the EU has described as “ethnic cleansing.”
“Eighty Georgian families lived here before the war, only me and my grandson stayed,” he said.
“Ossetians told my grandson that if he tried to cross the border, they will catch him, take him to Russia and throw him in jail.”
It’s a threat that appears to be very real.
Authorities in Tbilisi believe 126 ethnic Georgians were detained by separatist forces last year alone.
In February, one of the detainees, a 35-year-old vegetable seller Archil Tatunashvili, was tortured to death in a South Ossetian prison.
His mutilated body was only returned to his family after weeks of diplomatic negotiations by Western countries.
Prosecutors from the International Criminal Court — which in 2016 opened an investigation into war crimes committed during the conflict — estimate that up to 18,500 ethnic Georgians were forcibly displaced from South Ossetia.
Despite fierce opposition from Moscow, the UN General Assembly has adopted 10 resolutions calling for their “safe and dignified return to their homes.”
But a decade after the war, they still live in settlements built for them across Georgia. And they blame Russia for their plight.
“Russia invaded Georgia to prevent us from becoming a member of the European Union and NATO, to keep the Caucasus in its claws,” said 54-year-old refugee Gennady Zaridze.
He now lives in Tserovani, a windswept settlement built in eastern Georgia for 2,000 families displaced from South Ossetia’s Akhalgori district.
Speaking to AFP, Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili said he was constantly urging Tbilisi’s Western allies to step up pressure on the Kremlin to “end the occupation of Georgian soil.”
But countless rounds of internationally-mediated talks launched in October 2008 in Switzerland to resolve the conflict have so far brought little, if any, progress.
Margvelashvili stressed that Georgians “must not lose hope.”
That is “exactly” what Russia wants them to do, he said.
“They tell us: ‘Whatever you do, your fate will be decided in Moscow.’ My answer is: this is not the case.”
A decade after Russia war, plight of Georgian refugees continues
A decade after Russia war, plight of Georgian refugees continues
- In August 2008, Russia and Georgia had fought a five-day war over South Ossetia
- Following the Russian invasion, HRW accused Moscow of overseeing the “wide-scale pillaging and burning of Georgian homes” by South Ossetian forces
India accelerates free trade agreements against backdrop of US tariffs
- India signed a CEPA with Oman on Thursday and a CETA with the UK in July
- Delhi is also in advanced talks for trade pacts with the EU, New Zealand, Chile
NEW DELHI: India has accelerated discussions to finalize free trade agreements with several nations, as New Delhi seeks to offset the impact of steep US import tariffs and widen export destinations amid uncertainties in global trade.
India signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Oman on Thursday, which allows India to export most of its goods without paying tariffs, covering 98 percent of the total value of India’s exports to the Gulf nation.
The deal comes less than five months after a multibillion-dollar trade agreement with the UK, which cut tariffs on goods from cars to alcohol, and as Indian trade negotiators are in advanced talks with New Zealand, the EU and Chile for similar partnerships.
They are part of India’s “ongoing efforts to expand its trade network and liberalize its trade,” said Anupam Manur, professor of economics at the Takshashila Institution.
“The renewed efforts to sign bilateral FTAs are partly an after-effect of New Delhi realizing the importance of diversifying trade partners, especially after India’s biggest export market, the US, levied tariff rates of up to 50 percent on India.”
Indian exporters have been hit hard by the hefty tariffs that went into effect in August.
Months of negotiations with Washington have not clarified when a trade deal to bring down the tariffs would be signed, while the levies have weighed on sectors such as textiles, auto components, metals and labor-intensive manufacturing.
The FTAs with other nations will “help partially in mitigating the effects of US tariffs,” Manur said.
In particular, Oman can “act as a gateway to other Gulf countries and even parts of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Africa,” and the free trade deal will most likely benefit “labor-intensive sectors in India,” he added.
The chances of concluding a deal with Washington “will prove to be difficult,” said Arun Kumar, a retired economics professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
“With the US, the chances of coming to (an agreement) are a bit difficult, because they want to get our agriculture market open, which we cannot do. They want us to reduce trade with Russia. That’s also difficult for India to do,” he told Arab News.
US President Donald Trump has threatened sanctions over India’s historic ties with Moscow and its imports of Russian oil, which Washington says help fund Moscow’s ongoing war with Ukraine.
“President Trump is constantly creating new problems, like with H-1B visa and so on now. So some difficulty or the other is expected. That’s why India is trying to build relationships with other nations,” Kumar said, referring to increased vetting and delays under the Trump administration for foreign workers, who include a large number of Indian nationals.
“Substituting for the US market is going to be tough. So certainly, I think India should do what it can do in terms of promoting trade with other countries.”
India has free trade agreements with more than 10 countries, including comprehensive economic partnership agreements with South Korea, Japan, and the UAE.
It is in talks with the EU to conclude an FTA, amid new negotiations launched this year for trade agreements, including with New Zealand and Chile.
India’s approach to trade partnerships has been “totally transformed,” Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in a press briefing following the signing of the CEPA with Oman, which Indian officials aim to enter into force in three months.
“Now we don’t do FTAs with other developing nations; our focus is on the developed world, with whom we don’t compete,” he said. “We complement and therefore open up huge opportunities for our industry, for our manufactured goods, for our services.”
