Archive - 2/2009

RSO Foreign Minister Murat Djioev tells about the results of the 4th round of Geneva consultations on Security in the Caucasus.

What are the main results of the forth round of Geneva consultations?
On 17-18 Februar, new round of discussions was held in Geneva to follow the plan of French and Russian presidents. The discussions are meant to contribute to security in the Republic of South Ossetia and Republic of Abkhazia. Usually, the discussions are held in two working groups with South Ossetia"s representatives" participation.

At 17-18 February Geneva talks, the participants discussed and agreed proposals on joint mechanisms for prevention and rapid-reaction in cases of incidents. This was reported by Boris Chochiev, Post-conflict settlement Plenipotentiary, in his phone conversation with IA RES. "The proposals are aimed at excluding the probability of military force and equipment concentration and provocations by the Georgian side on the territories adjacent to borders of South Ossetia, to ensure rapid reaction to solve security related issues, including incidents and their investigation", said Chochiev.

The South Ossetian Delegation to Geneva talks had met with officials of UN OCHA and discussed issues related to humanitarian aid for the population of South Ossetia, reported Boris Chochiev, the RSO Plenipotentiary for Post-conflict settlement.

The Delegation of the Republic of South Ossetia to Geneva Talks held in accordance with the agreements between the Presidents of the Russian Federation and France, D. Medvedev and N.Sarkozy, of 12 August and 8 September 2008, striving for increased security in the region, fully supports the proposals on joint mechanisms for prevention n and rapid reaction to incidents agreed at 4th Geneva meeting, states the following:

President Eduard Kokoity held a press-conference for journalists of western media who arrived in South Ossetia on 12 February to see the political and social situation on the ground as well as with the process of removal of consequences of Georgian aggression.

Rehabilitation works at sites in Tskhinval destroyed during the Georgian aggression. The kindergarten #13 in Ostaev street was seriously damaged. On 11 October 2008, reconstruction works had started at this site. As reported by chief of construction crew Magomed Kazim, the customer of the project is the State committee on reconstruction and the contractor is the Department for Reconstruction to the Government of North Ossetia – Alania.

Several journalists representing western media are visiting South Ossetia to see the process of reconstruction. The have visited "Moscow microdistirct" which is being built up, as well as other construction sites in Tskhinval. During their visit, the journalists had a possibility to talk to local population to better understand the situation in post-war South Ossetia. James Hill, a photographer from "New York Times", came to South Ossetia in 90s and right after the August 2008 hostilities.

"It is not by chance that the Georgian side has been recently organizing various provocations", stated the RSO President"s Plenipotentiary for Post-conflict Settlement Boris Chochiev. "We have learned Georgia"s provocative methods through these years and these provocations always happen right before some important meetings", said Chochiev. "We believe that Geneva talks are extremely important. We will be adopting the finalized mechanism for incident prevention. And it is clear, that this mechanism should have been agreed before to be able to rapidly react to these provocations. Nonetheless, at the last meeting, the Georgian side had forwarded conditions that appeared unacceptable for us and that is why this prevention mechanism had not been agreed", he noted.

"The repeated cases of violation of the RSO state border by OSCE Mission military monitors contribute to aggravation of the situation and speak for the fact that the OSCE military observers could not cope with their functions which they still have in Georgia", said RSO Foreign Minister Murat Djioev.
"Two days in a row the military observers of the OSCE Mission to Georgia attempted an illegal penetration into the territory of Tskhinval district of the Republic of South Ossetia and were stopped in the area of Adsvistavi village.

On 10 February 2009, the personnel of the Artsevi interior department personnel had observed and stopped a vehicle with two OSCE Mission military monitors not far from the village of Adzvistav of Tskhinval District. The monitors had illegally crossed the state border of the Republic of South Ossetia. In the conversation with the monitors, they stated that this fact was a pure misunderstanding. After necessary explanations and formalities, the monitors left the territory of South Ossetia.