Archive - 2/7/2009

The sixth round of the Geneva discussion is ongoing. As the Special Representative for POst-Conflict Settlement Boris Chochiev told IA RES on the phone, "the discussion is difficult".
"The first working group is discussing security issues. Unfortunately, the document guaranteeing non-use of force has not been approved", said Chochiev. According to him, the discussion of this document started already in May. "In accordance with the Medvedev-Sarkozy plan guaranteeing security of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, we have suggested variants of agreement on non-use of force, however, we have not seen any proposals of the kind from the Geneva Co-Chairmen. In return, the Georgian side has presented an extremely cynical draft agreement on non-use of force between Georgia and Russia. These drafts are under discussion now."
"We have firmly raised the issue (which is now being discussed) on the format of the Geneva discussion, about the Chairmen, since the UN is no longer present in Abkhazia and the OSCE has been withdrawn from both Georgia and South Ossetia. Today, we have raised the issue of revising the Chairmanship format at these meetings", said Chochiev.

While opening the conference, the Minister of Defense of South Ossetia Yury Tanaev emphasized the importance of having events of this kind. "Since 1 August 2008, the Georgian-Ossetian relations dramatically aggravated. On the night of 8 August, Georgia shelled Tskhinval with all types of artillery targeting the residents of our Republic. The today's conference aims at analyzing the causes of the war and the course of the hostilities and shortcomings in the controlling of armed units", said the Minister.
The RSO President Eduard Kokoity, representatives of law enforcement and defense structures – the Interior Minister Valery Valiev, Chairman of the State Security Committee (KGB) Boris Attoev, Security Council Chairman Eduard Kotaev, participated in the conference.