The Geneva Talks Co-Chair delegation visited South Ossetia. The delegation was headed by the EU Co-Chair Pierre Morel. OSCE Co-Chair Bolat Nurgaliev and UN Co-Chair Antti Turunen, OSCE Secretariat representative Rasa Ostrauskaite, the European Commission Senior Political Advisor and UNHCR representative were among the delegation.
In Tskhinval, the delegation was received by South Ossetian Foreign Minister Murat Djioev and Deputy Special Representative for Post-Conflict Settlement Merab Chigoev. The Deputy Foreign Minister Alan Pliev and the President's Special Representative for Human Rights David Sanakoev also attended the meeting. In his introductory speech, Murat Djioev expressed his hope that the meeting would be fruitful for the preparation of the next round of talks. He noted that after August 2008, the only international mechanism capable to defuse tensions in the region are the Geneva discussions. "We believe we can reach an agreement on non-use of force paper within the frameworks of the Geneva discussions. It is crucially important. It is a key element in the process of settlement on other issues of Georgian-Ossetian relations", said Djioev.
According to him, the main objective of the next round is the preparation of the non-use of force paper, which could set solid grounds for the development of other relations between South Ossetia and Georgia, including humanitarian issues. From his side, Pierre Morel expressed the readiness to discuss all issues on the agenda of the Geneva discussions. Speaking on the results of the meeting, South Ossetian Foreign Minister underlined that the discussion had primarily focused on security.
"We pointed to the recent provocation of the Georgian authorities – the broadcast of the IMEDI TV. This provocation was authorized by the leadership of Georgia and brought our relations and the security in the region to the edge. Since we believe that the provocation was authorized by the Georgian leadership, we addressed the Co-Chairs to include this tropic into the Geneva talks' agenda so that there is an evaluation given to this act," said Murat Djioev.
As the Foreign Minister reported to journalists, the non-use of force was also discussed at the meeting, however, according to him, the sides still had different views on the documents, though there was a common agreement on the fact that absolutely everyone needed security.
"There was still no progress in the missing issue and the problem of South Ossetians illegally detained in Georgia. We highly appreciate the efforts of the CoE Human Rights Commissioner Tomas Hammarberg and his experts, and we do hope that there will be a progress and we will continue our work", concluded Djioev. As to the IMEDI broadcast, Pierre Morel pointed to the necessity to discuss similar incidents at the meetings within the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism. "These meetings could be used, but unfortunately currently they do not work. You may have noticed that this program received an extremely negative feedback among all sides, even in Georgia. We will find out all the details of this incident while in Geneva", said Morel. He named Geneva discussions as the system which might create conditions for security: "This system might seem fragile, but we continue our work". As the OSCE Co-Chair Bolat Nurgaliev noted that along with the preparation of the next round of talks, the visit had another aspect. "The fact that we regularly take the long trip and visit the region proves the fact that three authoritative international organizations OSCE, EU and UN are determined to bring security, stability and predictability in the situation. We will do our best to ensure that the situation develops exactly this way. The Geneva discussion are the only internationally recognized mechanism. It is quite effective, if one takes into account all outside factors and the complex set of problems. There is no other alternative acceptable for the population of South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Georgia and international community than a continued dialogue", underscored Nurgaliev. The delegation had a site visit to the buildings reconstructed after August 2008 in Tskhinval. After that, a working meeting between the South Ossetian Foreign Minister Murat Djioev, the Deputy Special Representative for Post-Conflict Settlement Merab Chigoev and the OSCE Co-Chairperson Bolat Nirgaliev took place.
