by Elizaveta Valieva
4 September 2007
Ossetian refugees are slow to take up a Georgian offer that could allow them to reclaim their old homes.
VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia | After years of waiting, thousands of refugees eking out a living in this south Russian city now have a way to reclaim their old houses in Georgia or to be compensated for their lost property.
Georgia took a dramatic step earlier this year toward reconciliation with ethnic Ossetians who fled the fighting between forces loyal to Tbilisi and South Ossetian separatists in the early 1990s. A long-awaited property restitution law for victims of the conflict finally took effect on 1 January.