DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH OSSETIA

The Session of the Supreme Council of the Republic of South Ossetia, on its meeting of 21 December 1991, having discussed the issue on independence, which was included in the agenda, states the following:

On 23 November 1989 the government of Georgia started undeclared war against the people of South Ossetia. The people of Ossetia were subjected to the political, economic, energy and informational blockade.

The media means started unbridled anti-Ossetian campaign with the demand to abolishing the South Ossetian autonomy and expelling them outside of the Georgian borders. All of these were accompanied with terror against the Ossetian people, burning the houses, destroying the highways and railroads.

Since 1991 the Supreme Council and the Government of the Republic of Georgia declared the open confrontation against the peaceful population. They aimed at physical annihilation of the Ossetian people. The President of Georgia, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and other authorities of the republic openly called in media means for physical destruction of Ossetians.

1991 was the year of unprecedented terror – hundreds were killed, thousands – injured or missing, tens of villages were given to arson, subversive and terrorist acts became norm.

Despite of all the aforementioned the leadership and the people of South Ossetia attached their maximum effort to put an end to the brutal fratricidal war.

Guided by the humanistic principles and the common norms of international relations, and respecting the will of the President of the USSR and of the Supreme Council of the USSR, the leadership of the South Ossetia declared about its readiness to return to the oblast structures of governance.

However, the government of Georgia ignored both, the fine gesture of the Ossetian side and the Order of the President of the USSR of 7 January 1991. Moreover, the armed formations of Georgia acted with the aim to final annihilation of a small people; such development caused mass migration of Ossetians from the inner districts of Georgia to the North Ossetia.

The leaders of South Ossetia regularly informed the international community, the President of the USSR, the Supreme Council of the USSR and of RSFSR that if the decisive steps would not be made from their side, the Ossetian people would be physically slaughtered. Despite of these warnings the genocide of the people is still in progress.

Guided with the aim to save the nation and for the sake of success of the ideals of freedom and common values, acknowledging the responsibility before the future generations, the session of the Supreme Council of the Republic of South Ossetia held on 21 December 1991 declared the independence of the Republic of South Ossetia.

The declaration was adopted at the session of the Supreme Council of the Republic of South Ossetia.

Tskhinval, 21 December 1991

(Conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Documents 1989-2006 (Supplement to “Kavkazskie Sborniki”, edition #1). Collected and commented by M. A. Volkhonski, B. A. Zakharov, N. Y. Silaev. – Moscow, 2008, p. 203-204/in Russian)