A delegation of the EU, OSCE and UN arrived today in South Ossetia: Special Representative of the OSCE CiO Christopouolos Charalampos, UNOMIG Senior Political Officer Atanas Baltov and the EU Envoy Pierre Morel, as well as other representatives of these organizations.
In Tskhinval, the visitors were received by the Special Representative for Post-Conflict Settlement Boris Chochiev.
At the beginning of the meeting, Chochiev stressed that issues related to security and non-use of force by Georgia remained the most important for South Ossetia. “We are happy that the last meeting focused on these issues. This is one of the points in Medvedev-Sarkozy plan, which should be implemented. Therefore, it is necessary to elaborate a document which would guarantee security”, said Chochiev.
“On 31 May, while Parliamentary elections were taking place in South Ossetia, several terrorist acts had been prevented. This again speaks for the fact that Georgia had not worked on the document on non-use of force, but continued organizing terrorist acts and provocations”, underlined the Special Representative. “I should also focus on the current situation when the United States, Ukraine and Israel openly stated that they continued militarizing Georgia to make the Georgian army more capable than ever. This causes direct threat to the security in South Ossetia”, he added.
It was suggested discussing the issues related to detained and missing citizens of South Ossetia, weekly meetings of working groups, issues related to water and modalities of supplies to Georgia. Pierre Morel stressed these meetings created favorable conditions for further work. “These visits of the Geneva Co-Chairmen became a good tradition and we are going to continue it. Despite certain problems, we had fruitful meetings in Geneva. We managed to touch upon security issues, as well as humanitarian problems. We had a thorough discussion on non-use of force. There are different interpretations, but we should proceed with solving these issues. There were ideas on international security arrangements and movement through crossing points and joint visits which are beyond the mechanism”, said Morel expressing the readiness to take note of the South Ossetian side’s proposals.
After the meeting, the Special Representative of the OSCE CiO Ambassador Christopoulos Charalampos told media that the meeting was fruitful and that the sides came to concrete decisions on all discussed issues.
"This was the longest meeting for the last nine months. During these three hours we have discussed all elements of the issues which we have on the agenda in Geneva”, said the Ambassador.
According to Chochiev, the South Osseitan side did not change its position regarding the participation in working groups’ meetings within the frames of the Geneva discussions.
“The meeting scheduled for 11 June, was postponed for 23 June. We will not participate in it before we are provided with information on the fate of our citizens”, said Chochiev. “We also insist on Georgia’s signing a document on non-use of force against South Ossetia and the international community acting as a guarantor”, stated Chochiev.
It was proposed to discuss the crossing points issue at the next meeting in Geneva. In response, we have stated that the border crossing is the prerogative of the state. We are independent and we have a commission on demarcation and delimitation of state border. An agreement with Russia on joint border protection was signed and it is for to decide on the border crossing”, underscored Chochiev.
