Today, 19 October, a meeting of the representatives of South Ossetian and Georgian sides took place in Ergneti (Georgia). The meeting focused on the missing South Ossetians and Georgians. As reported by Deputy Special Representative for Post-Conflict Settlement MerB Chigoev, the meeting was not supplementary (not initially planned) and was convened upon the proposal of the Geneva discussions Co-chairman, the OSCE CiO Special Representative Charalampos Christopoulos. According to Chigoev, the meeting's main focus was the fate of the missing South Ossetians and Georgians and the follow-up on the persons trialed by South Ossetian and Georgian courts.
"As usual, the meeting was quite tense. We believe that the Georgian side held an unconstructive position. The fact is, the five South Ossetian citizens are considered by both the Georgian side and the OSCE as missing, while we know that these persons are kept by Georgian power structures. The information is true since there are necessary proofs. These are citizens abducted on 13 October 2008 – Khugaev, Khachirov and Pliev and missing since 8 October 2008 Ikaev and Kabisov. Despite all our addresses to OSCE and EU to gain any kind of information about their fate, there were no major developments", said Chigoev. "We have gained additional information about Ikaevand Kabisov and transmitted the data to the Georgian side for verification. This also refers to the additional facts about Khugaev, Khachirov and Pliev. The latter will be transmitted in the nearest future", he said. According to Chigoev,if this information had been thoroughly scrutinized one could expect certain developments.
"The Georgian side has also raised the issue about its missing persons. The possible locations where some persons might be buried were also named", said chigoev. The South Ossetian side suggested providing more detailed information in this regard to examine the double-check the data.
