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Compiled by Messenger Staff
Friday, June 18
First North Ossetia, then the Caucasus for Whites leader

Akhali Taoba writes that a Georgian delegation visited North Ossetia at the end of May and saw a Georgian school and Georgian church in Vladikavkaz. "Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II was baptised in this church" said Gocha Dzasokhov, the head of the Georgian People’s Congress, which had invited the delegation to Vladikavkaz.

Temur Shashiashvili, leader of the White Movement, led the delegation. After seeing the church the delegation established a fund to raise money for its restoration.

Shashiashvili was delighted to find that the 11,000 Georgians in the region are not being persecuted there, and if fact there are warm relations between Georgians and Ossetians. "That is why I have decided to set up a Georgian-Ossetian friendship mission", he said.

11,000 Georgians live in North Ossetia without any problem. However, there is an anti-Georgian campaign underway in North Ossetia. The approach of North Ossetian Duma Deputy Arsen Padzaev to Georgia is well known, as he declared two years ago that Kazbegi belongs to North Ossetia. Others also conduct anti-Georgian propaganda. The newspaper states that Shashiashvili did not notice these anti-Georgian moods in North Ossetia and does not think that the Dariali organisation is a danger due to its provocative statements against Georgia.

The leader of the Whites maintains that people like Padzaev form only 1% of the North Ossetian population. The other 99% welcome warm and friendly relations with Georgians, which he thinks will only improve after restoring the Georgian church there. Shashiashvili thinks he has already regulated relations with Ossetians and is now thinking about sorting out the whole Caucasus, the newspaper says. He plans to restore relations with Abkhazians too and will visit Sokhumi with his friends in the near future.



Christian Democrats demand reform of High Council of Justice

Akhali Taoba writes that the Nika Laliashvili of the Christian Democrats has presented to Parliament a new legislative initiative to fundamentally reform the High Council of Justice.

Laliashvili, an opposition member of the High Council of Justice, states that the members of the High Council nominated by the President should be appointed for definite terms and the approval of the Court, Parliament and the President for the appointment of a judge should not be mandatory. He states that if Parliament approves this initiative the High Council of Justice will become a really valid and politically independent organ and the basis of forming an independent justice system in Georgia.