By David Nowak

Former officials of Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia said Friday that tyranny and official corruption have flourished there following the Russian-Georgian war last summer.

Russia recognized South Ossetia and another separatist province as independent shortly after Russian forces repelled Georgia's effort to regain control over South Ossetia. Moscow has pledged more than $240 million in aid to South Ossetia.

But former South Ossetian security council head Anatoly Barankevich, who battled Georgian tanks during the conflict, said many residents have become disillusioned with life under pro-Russian leader Eduard Kokoity.

Speaking at a Moscow news conference before May 31 parliamentary elections in the province, Barankevich said hundreds of millions of dollars meant to rebuild homes, schools and hospitals have been misappropriated under Kokoity.

"What has happened practically a year after the war? Nothing. Not one apartment has been rebuilt, not one business has recuperated," Barankevich said.

"There are dozens of concrete examples of theft" of aid, he said.

Barankevich would not say how much he thought had been pocketed by members of the separatist government, saying only he hoped the figures would be released by Russian auditors.

Irina Gagloyeva, South Ossetia's information minister, rejected the accusations of corruption.

Of $240 million in aid promised by Russia, only about $45 million had arrived, she said. That money arrived just before the end of last year and was used top pay arrears to local and Russian companies that had conducted restoration work immediately after the conflict, Gagloyeva said.

"There is literally nothing to steal," she said.

Meanwhile, Askhar Kochiyev, a former chief prosecutor in South Ossetia, said Kokoity has crushed dissent by publicly threatening to jail anyone who challenges his authority.

"Now the air in South Ossetia is saturated with fear, despair and hate," Kochiyev said. "There are permanent threats against those who could say something against the leadership. This is not about dictatorship, this is about tyranny."

Barankevich and Kochiyev called for a boycott of the election.

Barankevich said South Ossetians would not settle for an authoritarian leadership after their "dream of freedom" — a reference to the region's aspirations for independence — had been realized. Russia and Nicaragua are the only countries that have recognized South Ossetia as independent.

Barankevich and Kochiyev asserted that Georgia's government did a better job taking care of displaced people after the war. Many Georgians who fled the fighting were found alternative accommodation in and around the capital, Tbilisi.

Gagloyeva criticized them for "trying to find negatives."

"Every country needs an opposition. It is useful. But we are a very young state, and this has to be understood."

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