On 11 August, upon the personal request from the Special Representative of the OSCE Greek Chairmanship Ambassador Charalampost Christopoulos, he was expected to visit South Ossetia to discuss the proposals on OSCE presence in the Republic of South Ossetia. As reported by Boris Chochiev, the Special Representative for Post-Conflict Settlement, an agreement has been reached that Ambassador Christopoulos would arrive at the border with South Ossetia by a vehicle provided by the Greek Embassy in Georgia, and “on our territory, the transportation will be supported by UNHCR Mission in the RF.”
“Yesterday, we learnt that the UNHCR vehicles cannot arrive from Russia. Ambassador Christopoulos suggested arriving by the vehicles of the Greek Embassy in Georgia. Our response was that we could not agree since South Ossetia is a sovereign independent state and visitors cannot move on our territory by vehicles of embassies represented in other states. We offered him with our transportation. In response he refused due to unclear reasons. Therefore, the visit was cancelled”, said Chochiev.
It is not for the first time that similar would be able to move on the territory of South Ossetia by vehicles provided by the UNHCR. Until now, the problem was settled. discussed for several months, and it was eventually agreed that the Co-Chairpersons to the Geneva discussions, including Mr. Christopoulos, would be able to move through the territory of South Ossetia by vehicles provided by the UNHCR. Until now, the problem seemed to be settled.
It is worth mentioning that while in South Ossetia, the EU Independent Fact-Finding Mission headed by Heidi Tagliavini was using the transportation provided by the South Ossetian side. There were not problems while the Mission was conducting its activity in South Ossetia.
According to Boris Chichiev, this was another trick of the OSCE returning to old “transportation problems” which had already been settled.
