Friendship across the Administrative Boundary Line

In the past months the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia has observed an intensification in the installation of fences and other obstacles along the Administrative Boundary Lines (ABL). Freedom of movement and livelihood issues of the local population are priorities for EUMM, therefore the Mission’s observations have been duly reported to the European External Action Service in Brussels and the EU Member States. The Mission has also been supporting dialogue through the Hotline and at the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism meetings among all sides.

Although concerns about the on-going ‘borderisation’ still persist, EU observers have recently come upon a nice example of cooperation across the ABL. Monitors met an ethnic Ossetian and an ethnic Georgian who have their neighbouring land plots on opposite sides of the ABL in the Shida Kartli region. The two men said they were good friends, regularly helping each other when working on their land. They expressed their wish for all people in the region to live and work together again.