On 3 December, the Special Representative for Post-Conflict Settlement Boris Chochiev met with the Head of the ICRC Protection Department Gilles Hansoul to discuss the meeting on the missing persons to take place in Yerevan with participation of parties concerned.
"I have also expressed our protest to the ICRC, namely the delegation in Georgia, in relation to non-fulfillment of their mandate which includes monitoring at detention places, where our citizens (South Ossetians) are kept in Georgia. In response to our requests and the requests of the relatives to visit the detainees (who were arbitrary arrested) and check their detention conditions, we have not received any information", said Chochiev.
"The ICRC had informed us that hygienic kits were delivered to them, but most probably the bandits kept in the same cells used the hygienic items. I was shocked when yesterday I got to know from the released persons that through the past year and two months in the Georgian prison they had been taken to bath only twice", said Chochiev.
Boris Chochiev focused on the meeting with the CoE HR Commissioner Tomas Hammarberg, who had most probably expected to take together with the two Georgian teenagers ten other Georgian citizens detained on the territory of South Ossetia for various crimes. "We responded that there could there are no one-side compromises. The Georgian side should fulfill the promises given last year in relation to the transfer of three citizens, who got life-sentence upon false charges about the terrorist attack in Gori. This also refers to Marek Dudaev", stated Chochiev. "We also consider it necessary that the international expert group on missing persons would start its work. On our side, we will provide any information needed and will do our best to facilitate the work", he noted. However, according to Boris Chochiev, the Georgian authorities were not interested in the fact-finding activities, since "the crimes were committed by Georgian authority representative, and therefore, they will be hindering the experts' work.
