Aid Groups Press Russian Authorities for Access to South Ossetia

August 20, 2008

Aid Groups Press Russian Authorities for Access to South Ossetia

Aid organizations met with Russian authorities yesterday to ask to be allowed to enter South Ossetia, a Georgian province controlled by Russian troops. The groups say tens of thousands of people are in need of food and medical care, Reuters reports.

Aid workers have been kept out of the province since the start of the conflict between Moscow and Tbilisi, which has lasted 11 days.

Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, spoke with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow yesterday; Antonio Guterres, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, is set to meet Mr. Lavrov today.

Red Cross officials who reached the western Georgian town of Gori several days ago were approached by residents asking for food and medicine, said Anna Nelson, a spokeswoman for the international Red Cross. Ms. Nelson said the organization has flown 430 tons of food and medical supplies into Georgia in the past week.

Officials at the United Nations estimated that 158,700 people have been uprooted by the conflict, including 30,000 people from South Ossetia who have been allowed by Russian authorities to remain in North Ossetia, a part of the Russian Federation.

The United Nations appealed on Monday for $58.6-million to help survivors of the crisis with food and other essential aid for the next six months.

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The Salvation Army is already providing relief in South Ossetia.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS: Salvation Army provides aid as people flee fighting in Republic of Georgia
Released 19 August 2008

The Salvation Army in the Republic of Georgia is providing emergency assistance to people who have fled the fighting between Russian and Georgian armed forces in the South Ossetia region. In the town of Gori, where displaced people are gathering, The Salvation Army has supplied humanitarian aid, blankets, medical supplies and food to a local hospital for distribution. It is likely that additional aid will be taken to Gori.

Georgian Salvation Army officers met with government representatives to discuss how they can be of ongoing assistance. They are keen to coordinate with other government and non-governmental agency responses.

The Salvation Army is caring for almost 200 South Ossetian refugees housed in a kindergarten in Ponichala, a suburb of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. Beds, bedding, clothes, toiletries and other necessities are being provided, and piping is being installed for water and temporary showers.

“The suddenness and intensity of the conflict caught everyone by surprise,” said Lt. Colonel Alistair Herring, second in command of The Salvation Army’s Eastern Europe Territory, “but officers and other Salvationists in Georgia responded quickly to the growing humanitarian crisis. We ask for prayer for Georgia and for Russia (both countries are within the Eastern Europe Territory); a swift path to the cessation of hostilities and a peaceful resolution to the conflict, and for the many people who’ve been caught up in the fighting and for the families of those killed.”

— Helen Aug 21, 12:27 PM #

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