Государственное информационное агентство "Рес"

There is no governmental or political crisis in South Ossetia, stated the president of the Republic of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity while making his speech before the government and the parliament of the Republic. The president expressed his support to the group of the parliament members who put the question of the government's impeachment. "Illiteracy and inaction of some of the ministers block the work of the government and undermines the authority of the Prime-Minister", emphasized the president.

South Ossetia handed over three Georgian citizens detained in October 2009 through the CoE High Commissioner for Human Rights Tomas Hammarberg, reported Human Rights Plenipotentiary David Sanakoev.
“Today, Biganov Levan Tedoevich, 1987, Djamrishvili Djamlet Temurovich, 1984, Tsiklauri Gennady Omarovich, 1971, were released. This fact speaks for the determination of the South Ossetian side to continue the work on release of detainees and search for the missing persons’, said Sanakoev. The detainees were handed over to the Georgian side at the Georgian-Ossetian borderline, village of Ergneti.

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Tomas Hammarberg is arriving in South Ossetia 2 May with a working visit. As the Plenipotentiary for Human Rights David Sanakoev reported to IA RES, the discussions in Tskhinval will again focus on the circumstances of abduction of South Ossetian citizens by Georgian law enforcement bodies during and after the hostilities in August 2008.

South Ossetian has solid proofs that at least seven missing citizens of South Ossetia were kept by Georgian law enforcement bodies. As reported by Deputy Plenipotentiary for Post-Conflict Settlement Merab Chigoev, this issue has been raised at the meeting with the Georgian side held yesterday at the Georgian-South Ossetian borderline.
"We have solid proofs that all of them at a certain moment were kept by Georgian law enforcement bodies. Presently, they are either in detention places on the territory of Georgia, or, what would be for us the most tragic, they are not alive. In the latter case, we demand that their bodies are handed over to us. Based on this, we insist that the fate of our missing persons is clarified. The ICRC promised to help us in this matter, and I have an impression that the ICRC, as a neutral organization, cannot openly express its position, but nonetheless, they do understand that our position is right and support us", said Chigoev.

The president of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity held a meeting focused on promotion of further recognition of South Ossetia's independence by CIS and other countries. The South Ossetian Parliament Speaker Stanislav Kochiev, Head of President's Administration Arsen Gagloev, Foreign Minister Murat Djioev, Deputy Parliament Speaker Yuriy Dzidtsoity, leaders of political parties "Yedinstvo" (Unity), "Fydybasta" (Motherland), "Rastag Ir" (Just Ossetia) and People's Party attended the discussion. South Ossetian Foreign Minister Murat Djioev brief the participants on the efforts taken by the MFA to promote further recognition of South Ossetia by international community.

Seminars for representatives of South Ossetian and Georgian NGOs within the frames of the project “Engagement through Dialogue” took place in Chisinau and Tiraspol. As Dina Alborova, the co-facilitator from the South Ossetian side, reported to IA RES, this project is aimed at confidence building between the two communities – South Ossetian and Georgian, after the war in August 2008. “This is a good forum for youth group meetings of our countries. The average age of the participants is 22-33, since the future depends on these young people, who will come to power tomorrow on both sides. It is crucially important that we listen to each other today”, underlined Alborova.

The first Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) meeting was held 23 April 2009 in the village of Ergneti adjacent to the borderline with South Ossetia. The agreement on the Mechanism was reached at Geneva discussions on security in the Caucasus. Representatives of authorities of South Ossetia and Georgia, Defense Ministry of the Russian Federation, as well as officials from the OSCE and EU. The aim of the IPRM, as seen by the initiators, is to defuse tensions and facilitate confidence building between South Ossetia and Georgia.

The visit of the PACE Monitoring Committee David Wilshire to the Embassy of the Republic of South Ossetia in the Russian Federation is aimed at showing the interest of this organization in receiving information not only from the Georgian side, reported political science expert Inal Pliev. “I do hope that PACE has changed its initial policy of complete ignoring of the reality and that the information provided by the South Ossetian side would be reflected in the report “On the consequences of the war between Georgia and Russia” to be presented by David Wilshire and his colleague Matias Eorsi at the Assembly session on 28 April”, said Pliev. According to the expert, “the true discontent of Tbilisi is not in the fact that the meeting was held at the Embassy, but that the meeting could have take place at all.

On 23 April, a delegation of Transdnestria paid an official visit to the Republic of South Ossetia. The delegation was headed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Transdnestria Vladimir Yastrebchak. The purpose of the visit was to deliver congratulatory messages from the President of Transdnestria Igor Smirnov to the veterans of the Great Patriotic War and participate in awarding ceremony on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the Victory Day.

Today, official delegation of Transdnestria is arriving in South Ossetia, reported the Foreign Ministry of South Ossetia. Thee delegation is headed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Transdnestrian Republic Vladimir Yastrebchak. According to South Ossetian MFA's information, the delegation also includes Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Simonenko, Advisor to the Department for Protocol and Negotiations Sergey Cheresh.