‘We are ready for cooperation with all international organizations which are willing to get an objective picture of the situation in the South Caucasus”, said the RSO Foreign Minister Murat Djioev commenting on the Vienna discussion on the new working plan for the OSCE Mission.
”South Ossetia after August 2008 had repeatedly addressed the OSCE with proposals on identifying frames for future cooperation”, he reminded. “Unfortunately, so far our relations have not been setteled. OSCE cannot certainly work in South Ossetia as it did before the aggression of Georgia.
The core point of our proposals is that the OSCE can open a special mission on the territory of South Ossetia directly subordinate to Vienna. That is, for us it is unacceptable when the OSCE Mission working in South Ossetia is a part of the Mission to Georgia. We have already passed this stage and there can be no further talks about this. The last proposal received from the OSCE Greek Chairmanship envisages presence of 30 OSCE monitors in Georgian and South Ossetia – 22 on the territory of Georgia and 8 on the territory of South Ossetia. However, according to the Greek Chairmanship, this should be one group under one operative management, and we see here a Georgian “umbrella”. We have given a written response to the Greek Chairmanship that this option in unacceptable for us”.
”We are ready for a full-scale cooperation with international community, including OSCE, but this should be direct cooperation, not through Georgia”, underscored the Foreign Minister, adding that “any decision made without participation of South Ossetia would be unacceptable.”
Mura Djioev continued with commenting on the statement by Foreign Minister of Spain regarding the CoE decision that the CoE representatives would have unimpeded visits to South Ossetia. “South Ossetia was never closed for anyone”, said stated the Foreign Minister. “The only precondition here is that the road to South Ossetia goes through Russia. Due to current relations between South Ossetia and Georgia, the connection between these two states is inexistent, and therefore, representatives of international organizations cannot arrive here from Georgia”.
“I would like to reiterate that we are ready for cooperation with all international organizations which are willing to have an objective picture of the situation in the South Caucasus and the issue of what road to take should not become an obstacle for a full-scale cooperation”, added Murat Djioev.
