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Compiled by Messenger Staff
Thursday, July 29
Switzerland gives shelter to Vakhtang Komakhidze

Rezonansi writes that the Government of Switzerland has recognised that journalist Vakhtang Komakhidze is threatened in Georgia and has granted him asylum. Komakhidze says that this has been confirmed orally and his official status will be known in a couple of days.

Komakhidze asked the Government of Switzerland for asylum six months ago. "I do not know how the process is going. Only the Government of Switzerland does. My trial in Georgia has not been held yet, but Switzerland has given shelter to me. This means that the Government of Switzerland regards my claim about being in danger to be well-founded," Vakhtang Komakhidze says.

Asked if this decision gives him the status of a political refugee, Khomakidze says, "I think the present interpretations in the Georgian media are a bit exaggerated. It has been written that I have recognised as politically persecuted and so on, but there has not been any official recognition of this at all. I just know that they have given shelter to me. I do not have any other information about getting official status and do not want to outrun events. I just know that they have officially given me shelter. I am not aware of my legal status, because I have not seen any document yet. Therefore, I do not I do not want to give my interpretation of the decision of the Government of Switzerland at this stage."

"I will know what is happening about all the other issues in a couple of days, including what will happen to the rest of my family. But I am ready to start work. I have not had proper conditions to work in here so far and have not been able to work on a film. This has been my essential problem here. When I leave this accommodation, I will continue my work," the journalist says.



Georgian Post sends letters to Abkhazia but not Tskhinvali

24 Saati writes that internet outlet Regnum reports the following incident: an Ossetian citizen of Russia asked the Russian Post to send a condolence letter to South Ossetia. Under the International Postal Convention, every member state of the UN has a post index of its own. As South Ossetia is part of Georgian territory, the Russian Post could not deliver a letter to the address 'Þæíàÿ Îñåòèÿ', 'Öõèíâàë'. Its staff advised the Ossetian citizen of Russia to write Ãðóçèÿ instead of 'Þæíàÿ Îñåòèÿ' and 'Öõèíâàëè' instead of 'Öõèíâàë'. After undergoing the relevant procedures, the staff of the Russian Post notified Ossetian citizen of Russia that his letter would reach its destination in a few hours.

24 Saati has tried to confirm that this is happening and discovered that no post has been delivered to Tskhinvali from Georgia since the August War of 2008. "The staff of Russian Post may just have been trying to calm down the Ossetian citizen of Russia by saying that the letter would reach its destination, but this could not have happened However, before the war, such a letter would have to have included the word Georgia in its address," David Darakhvelidze, head of the Exploitation Service of Georgian Post, says.

Abkhazia does not have the same problem. International post is delivered via Georgian Post to Abkhazia, but certain restrictions have been imposed – Georgian Post delivers only letters, not parcels, to Abkhazia. The Coordination Service takes the letters to the Georgia-Abkhazia administrative border and gives them to Abkhazian border troops, who then pass them on to representatives of the so-called ‘Abkhazian Post’ As for parcels, Georgian Post says that Russia delivers these in the conflict regions but is violating the International Postal Convention by doing so. Every parcel delivered in the conflict regions of Georgia is delivered illegally.