South Ossetian has solid proofs that at least seven missing citizens of South Ossetia were kept by Georgian law enforcement bodies. As reported by Deputy Plenipotentiary for Post-Conflict Settlement Merab Chigoev, this issue has been raised at the meeting with the Georgian side held yesterday at the Georgian-South Ossetian borderline.
"We have solid proofs that all of them at a certain moment were kept by Georgian law enforcement bodies. Presently, they are either in detention places on the territory of Georgia, or, what would be for us the most tragic, they are not alive. In the latter case, we demand that their bodies are handed over to us. Based on this, we insist that the fate of our missing persons is clarified. The ICRC promised to help us in this matter, and I have an impression that the ICRC, as a neutral organization, cannot openly express its position, but nonetheless, they do understand that our position is right and support us", said Chigoev.
Yesterday, 29 April, the second meeting of representatives of South Ossetia, Georgia and Russia under the aegis of the International Committee of the Red Cross took place in the village of Knolevi, on the Georgian territory adjacent to the border with South Ossetia. The meeting focused on the missing South Ossetian citizens. According to Chigoev, the first part of the day's discussion focused on organizational issues and the issues related to the document stipulating the coordination mechanism.
"Both the South Ossetian and the Georgian sides had suggested their amendments to the document. The ICRC also had its variant. The Russian side did not manage to present its variant prior to the meeting, and so, the paper was presented yesterday. Based on the amendments suggested by all sides, the meeting facilitators will draw а comprehensive documents to be presented to each of the sides. We expect that by the next meeting, the document will be ready for signing", explained Chigoev.
The second half of the meeting was devoted to the monitoring of the situation related to the missing South Ossetian citizens. "Forensic expert, a representative of the ICRC, briefed us on the identification practices in finding, treatment and analysis of human remains. As to the fate of the missing persons, unfortunately, there were no developments so far. We never hid our intentions to transfer all collected data for further investigation, including to the ICRC, only in case if there are corresponding steps taken by Georgia", he said. Merab Chigoev expressed his hope that by the next meeting to be held in June, the fate of the South Ossetian missing persons would be clarified. "This hope is based on the principled stand, which the ICRC adheres to", he underlined.
