The South Ossetian delegation declared once again in Geneva about the need to adopt a document, which should become an important step to ensure durable security guarantees for South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia, according to the press service of the office of the Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy of the Republic of South Ossetia for post-conflict settlement.
On June 29-30, 2021, another round of international discussions on security in Transcaucasia took place in Geneva. It was attended by delegations from the Republic of South Ossetia, the Republic of Abkhazia, Georgia, the Russian Federation, the United States, as well as representatives of the EU, UN and OSCE. The South Ossetian delegation was headed by the Presidential Plenipotentiary for post-conflict settlement Murat Dzhioev.
“The work took place in two working groups: on security and humanitarian issues. In the working group on security in accordance with the Medvedev-Sarkozy agreements, the main attention was paid to ensuring guarantees of the non-resumption of Georgia's aggression against South Ossetia and Abkhazia, in particular, consultations were continued on the preparation of a legally binding document on the refusal to use force or the threat of force, which has international guarantees. " , - said the press service of the office of the Plenipotentiary.
The South Ossetian delegation gave a detailed rationale for the need to adopt such a document, which should become an important step to ensure durable security guarantees for South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia and to strengthen the existing structure of regional security.
“During the discussion of security issues, the delegation of the Republic of South Ossetia drew the most serious attention of the rest of the participants to the situation in the border areas as a result of the deployment of a fortified post of the Georgian police on the territory of South Ossetia near the village of Uista (Tsnelis). It was noted that the provocative actions of the Georgian side are perceived as deliberate escalation of tension and have an extremely negative effect on the possibility of maintaining and strengthening a stable and secure situation along the entire perimeter of the South Ossetian state border,” the press service emphasized.
The meeting participants noted the absence of serious incidents and relative stability.
"At the same time, the provocative direction of the actions of the Georgian side to whip up information tension was noted. The South Ossetian representatives again recalled the proposal of the authorities of the Republic of South Ossetia to start working on the delimitation and demarcation of the state border between South Ossetia and Georgia on a bilateral basis. The discussion participants noted the usefulness and the expediency of continuing the operation of the mechanism for preventing and responding to incidents in the region of the South Ossetian-Georgian border (IPRM), operating within the framework of the Geneva discussions. The effectiveness of the functioning of the IPRM hotline was emphasized, "the press service said.
The plenipotentiary's office noted that representatives of South Ossetia and Abkhazia expressed serious concern over the new steps towards Georgia’s integration into NATO and the creation of infrastructure facilities of the North Atlantic Alliance on the territory of Georgia.
"The intensification of Georgia's interaction with NATO cannot but cause concern against the background of the stubborn reluctance of the Georgian authorities to take on commitments not to use force against the Republic of South Ossetia and the Republic of Abkhazia and Georgia's continuing claims to their sovereign territories. The South Ossetian party pointed to the ongoing sabotage of the investigation of the cases of enforced disappearance of Ossetians by the Georgian authorities and called on international mediators to put pressure on Georgia.
In connection with the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the resolution on refugee problems presented by Georgia, the South Ossetian and Abkhaz participants in the Geneva Discussions issued a joint statement at the meeting, which has noted that this politicized resolution not only cannot help to improve the situation of refugees from Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but and closes the opportunity to discuss the problem of refugees in the format of the Geneva Discussions. A constructive discussion of the topic of refugees will become possible if Georgia refuses to artificially politicize this problem, "the press service said.
They have added that the most serious attention was again drawn to the gross violations by Georgia of the rights of Ossetians - natives of the historical part of Ossetia (Tyrsygom, It was also pointed to the facts of gross arbitrariness and violation of the property rights of the Ossetians.
"The actions of the Georgian authorities were regarded by the South Ossetian participants as a gross and cynical violation of fundamental human rights," the Plenipotentiary's Office noted.
