Archive - 2009

The RSO Parliament Speaker Stanislav Kochiev received the Head of the Russian office of "Amnesty International" (AI) Sergey Nikitin. The meeting focused on human right situation in South Ossetia and Georgia during and after the war in August 2008. According to Nikitin, the AI issued a report "Peaceful population on the front-line: Russian-Georgian conflict". "My colleagues in London are planning to issue a sequel report to survey the current human rights situation. I am staying in Tskhinval today and tomorrow, my colleagues are in Georgia. The are also having meetings with officials. Today I had a meeting with the Minister of Press and the Tskhinval city Mayor. I am planning to meet the Prosecutor General and the Interior Minister. For tomorrow, meetings with Murat Djioev, the Foreign Minister and the Human Rights Commissioner to the President of South Ossetia David Sanakoev have been scheduled", said Nikitin.

The Special Representative for Post-Conflict Settlement Boris Chochiev told IA RES about the 6th round of Geneva talks taking place on 1 July
Boris Chochiev: Back in February, an agreement on Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) was achieved within the frames of the Geneval talks. We agreed that all organizational issues will be discussed and settled at the Mechanism meetings. As you know, there were two meetings held – in Ergneti and in Dvani. None of these meetings resulted in our agreement on chairmanship of the meetings. We have suggested two variants. Representatives of Russia and the EU might co-chair the meetings, since these are the signatories of the Medvedev-Sarkozy agreements. We had also proposed that chairmanship at the meetings would be rotating between the participating sides. None of our proposals was adopted.

At today’s session, the members of the RSO Parliament discussed the draft law “On Defense” and the assignment of Carina Tskhovrebova as the judge to the Supreme Court of South Ossetia.
As reported by the press-service of the RSO Parliament, the MPs approved the candidature of Carina Tskhovrebova proposed by the RSO President as a judge to the Supreme Court, and adopted the Law “On Defense” in the first hearing.

On 5-12 July, in Germany, the Council of Europe (CoE) is holding a youth "Peace Camp" on settlement and transformation of conflicts. Representatives of South Ossetia should have also participated. However, as the Chairperson of the Association of Young Journalists Irina Kelekhsaev told IA RES, the participation of representatives from South Ossetia and Abkhazia was rejected – the facilitators explained the refusal with the fact that "the Embassies of Germany and France found it impossible to issue visas to these participants".

Solid traditions of parliamentarianism had developed in South Ossetia to share experience in parliamentary activity with other states, stated the President of the Republic of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity in his welcoming speech to the participants of the Round-table “Development of parliamentarianism – development of South Ossetia’s Statehood”, held in Tskhinval. We are building up normal relations. The agreements signed between the RSO Parliament and the State Duma of the Russian Federation set grounds for the development of our parliamentarianism”, stressed Kokoity.
”Today we should discuss not only the issues related to parliamentarianism, but also security, because the territory of South Ossetia is the Caucasus, the region with persistent security threats. We should do our best to ensure security and stability here”, emphasized the President.
Eduard Kokoity wished the participants a fruitful work.

Hasty decisions with adoption of a new Constitution of South Osseti and amendments introduced in the Constitution, are not always optimal, stated the Chairman of the RF State Duma for International relations Konstantin Kosachev who arrived in Tskhinval to participate in the Round-table “Development of Parliamentarianism – a successful development of statehood of the Republic of South Ossetia”. According to Kosachev, Russian MPs and experts were willing to offer to their South Ossetian colleagues with the Russian experience in constitutional development. “The essence of this experience in the fact that through a transitional period, when power institutions are just developing, hasty decisions in relation to adoption of a new Constitution, or amendments to it, are not always optimal.

A working meeting between the President of the Republic of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity and hte Parliament Speaker Stanislav Kochiev. During the meeting, Stanislav Kochiev told the president about the results of his trip to Moscow, where he had meetings with Ambassadors of various states in the Russian Federation. According to the Speaker, he had meetings with the Ambassadors of Cuba, Nicaragua, Moldova, etc.

At the threshold of the visit of the US. President Barak Obama to Moscow, the mothers of the South Ossetian kept in Georgia addressed the US. President with a request to influence the Georgian authorities so that they release their children detained in Georgian prisons upon false charges.
“No matter where in the world human rights are violated, Barak Obama pays much attention to their observance. Mothers of the abducted persons do hope that even the Georgian authorities will listen to his opinion and the US. President will show his sympathy and will help with bringing the children back to their homes”, said David Sanakoev.
According to him, “13 South Ossetians are still in detention in Georgian prisons. Seven of them were declared missing by the Georgian authorities, though we have proofs, including video material, that these people are detained by the Georgian law enforcement bodies and that they are subjected to tortures. This was repeatedly voiced at the Geneva discussions”.

The Head of Information and Public Relations Department of the North Caucasus Military Command, Lt.-Col. Andrey Bobrun told IA RES about the "Kavkaz 2009" first stage activities.
According to him, "during the first phase, the units and detachments engaged in the exercise continue conducting activities on fortification of areas and preparation of armory and equipment for combat fire. The forces of the Black Sea Fleet and the Caspian Fleet engaged in the "Kavkaz 2009" exercise are now at their permanent deployment locations ready for immediate action in accordance with received instructions. The marines had completed fortification of the Black Sea Fleet and the Caspian Fleet units", reported Bobrun.

On 1 July 2009, the 6th round of talks on security and stability in the South Caucasus was held in Geneva. The discussions are held in accordance with the Medvedev-Sarkozy agreements and are aimed at elaborating measures to ensure stability in the South Caucasus and security in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The discussions were held in two working groups. Taking into consideration the remaining tension in the region and the security threats, the South Ossetian Delegation suggested discussing the complex of measures to ensure security of South Ossetia and prevent a new aggression by Georgia. During the discussion, an agreement was reached on the necessity to elaborate measures to build confidence between the sides and conclude agreements between South Ossetia and Georgia and Abkhazia and Georgia on non-use of force. Concerns over the continuing militarization of Georgia with the support of the USA and other states were expressed.