Archive - 2009

The efforts on releasing the Ossetian hostages, abducted or illegally detained by Georgian law enforcement bodies and currently kept on the territory of Georgia, continue since 2008, told the Deputy Special Representative for Post-Conflict Settlement Merab Chigoev at the Parliament session. According to him, the work is extremely difficult.
"The Georgian side screams about the detention of Georgian citizens while there is an interest among international media to cover this issue.

On 3 December, the Special Representative for Post-Conflict Settlement Boris Chochiev met with the Head of the ICRC Protection Department Gilles Hansoul to discuss the meeting on the missing persons to take place in Yerevan with participation of parties concerned.
"I have also expressed our protest to the ICRC, namely the delegation in Georgia, in relation to non-fulfillment of their mandate which includes monitoring at detention places, where our citizens (South Ossetians) are kept in Georgia. In response to our requests and the requests of the relatives to visit the detainees (who were arbitrary arrested) and check their detention conditions, we have not received any information", said Chochiev.

The Georgian side released five hostages, citizens of South Ossetia, seized after the armed aggression of Georgia against South Ossetia in August 2008: Ibragim Zakharovich Laliev (1974), Lavrenty Tengizovich Kaziev (1974) – taken hostage on 8 October 2008 between the villages of Korkula and Khelchua, Yakov Grigorievich Tekhov (1941) taken on 13 October 2008 on the road from Khelchua to Disevi, Pavlik Konstantinovich Tekhov (1958) detained on 11 October 2008 between the villages of Korkula and Khelchua and Vladimir Fedeorvich Eloev (1973) detained on 31 April 2009 near the village of Orchosan in South Ossetia.

Scientific conference "The Republic of South Osetia: Search for Sources of Economic Development" finished in Tskhinval. The Conference resulted in agreements between the Governments of the RF and RSO on promotion and mutual protection of investments and establishment of trade delegations to the states. At the Conference, the Ministry for the Economic Development of South Ossetia and Ministry of Energy of the RF signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the sector of energy supply. The sides have also signed a joint 2010 Action Plan in the sector of tourism. The Ministry of Education, Science and Youth Policy and Federal Agency for Education of the RF signed a protocol of intentions on further development of cooperation in the filed of education.

The President of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity received Tomas Hammerberg, the CoE Human Rights Commissioner. The HR Commissioner of South Ossetia David Sanakoev, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Murat Djioev, Special Representative for Post-Conflict Boris Chochiev also participated in the meeting.
The South Ossetian Presidnet underlined that the mission of the HR Commissioner was extremely important. "South Ossetian is ready for cooperation with Council of Europe, European Union and OSCE, as well as with other international agencies, in order to normalize the situation here, in the Caucasus|, stated Kokoity,- "however, we have serious questions in regards to our trust towards these organizations. Our repeated concerns and the necessity to prevent the tragedy that took place here in August 2008, did not find any understanding among the organizations, and very often, these international agencies took an active part in the distortion of the information about the real situation on The President drew the attention of the CoE HR Commissioner to the fact that "unfortunately, we have to criticize the today's mission of the Commissioner".

On 19 November, the Special Representative of the RSO President for Post-Conflict Settlement Boris Chochiev met with the Head of the ICRC mission in South Ossetia Pierre Reichel. The meeting’s discussion focused on the missing South Ossetians. Boris Chochiev additionally asked the Head of Mission to check the information available to the South Ossetian side on the abducted citizens of South Ossetians who are kept by Georgian police in Gori (Georgia).

During his briefing in Tskhinval, the Special Representative for Post-Conflict Settlement Boris Chochiev told about the consultations on security in the Caucasus held in Geneva on 11 November. According to him, after the preliminarily agreement on the agenda has been reached, the first day’s discussions started with the situation at the area adjacent to the borderline between South Ossetia and Georgia and Abkhazia and Georgia.
‘The incidents at the borderline, including the detention of 16 Georgian citizens who trespassed the border of South Ossetia, as well as the 4 underage Georgian citizens who were detained with hand-grenades and explosives on the territory of South Ossetia were discussed. The Georgian side tried to build up the discussion so that it is focused on these four teenagers, but the report of the South Ossetian delegation focused drew the attention of the discussions’ participants on a more vital problem of abducted South Ossetians, including an underage persons. The Georgian side so far had refused to provide any information on местонахождении the fate of these persons.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delivered to the administration of Tskhinval and Znaur districts of South Ossetia two mobile workshops consisting of a welding generator unit, a welding set and plumbing tools, and a leakage detector.

At the eighth round of the Geneva consultations on security in the Caucasus, the side discussed the report of the EU-initiated Fact-finding Mission on the war in South Ossetia in August 2008. As reported by the Special Representative of the RSO President for Post-Conflict Settlement Boris Chochiev, the discussion of the Report was initiated by the Ossetian side. "The South Ossetian side suggested that in the future, the discussions on Georgian-Ossetian relationships would continue in the light of the report of Tagliavini, where there is a clear conclusion that Georgia had violated international norms by committing a perfidious attack at South Ossetia, that Georgia is the aggressor.", said Chochiev. South Ossetian representatives have also raised the question why the United States and the international community, based on Tagliavini's report, did not call for bringing Saakashvili to justice as the person responsible.

The South Ossetian side states about suspension in its participation in the work of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism, reported the Special Representative for Post-Conflict Settlement Boris Chochiev.
"During the Geneva talks on security in South Caucasus, we have circulated our delegation's statement that unless the Georgian side provides us with information concerning our citizens abducted by Georgian special services both during the war in August 2008 and after it, we will withdraw out participation in the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism established within the frames of the Geneva talks", said Chochiev.