An opposition meeting planned in South Ossetia

Opposition plans to hold meetings on March 20 and 21 in the South Ossetia capital.

Gherasim Khugaev, mayor of Tskhinvali, informs journalists that "the city council has received a notification on a meeting to be held on March 21 at the railway station square, filed by Grigory Dzasokhov, resident of Tskhinvali. The declared topic of the meeting is "restoration of the ruined dwelling and respect of the constitutional rights of the RSO citizens. The notification has been considered in conformance with the legislation. When it was established that the notification was not in line with the legislation requirements we had to refuse the issue of a permission to hold the event to the organizers".

Grigory Dzasokhov, organizer of the meeting, states that the meetings planned for March 20 and 21 are going to be held in protection of the constitutional rights of the South Ossetia citizens who lost their houses during the war with Georgia. Dzasokhov confirms that the topic of the meeting is going to be restoration of ruined housing and protection of the human rights.

Dzasokhov notes that 300 people are expected to attend the meeting and it is necessary to ensure their safety.

"I have applied to the Tskhinvali city council for providing safety to the meeting participants but the answer was that we failed to abide by the requirements of the "Regulation on the Procedure of Organization and Holding of Meetings, Street Marches and Demonstrations", therefore we were not given permission to hold the meeting," says Dzasokhov.

"The notification contains no surnames, names and patronymics of the organizers, their signatures, places of residence and work, as is required by the regulation. The administration of Tskhinvali can not give permission to hold an event the organizer of which is not known because, in conformance with the regulation, the responsibility for the public order on the part of the participants is placed on the event organizers," states Khugaev.

Still, in view of the necessity to facilitate the development of various forms of expression of the opinions by working people, and in spite of the fact that the notification has been compiled contrary to the requirements of the above regulation, the administration of Tskhinvali suggests that the meeting organizers should hold their event in the hall of the city administration.