Boris Chochiev, the Plenipotentiary for post-conflict settlement, told journalists about the results of the 10th round of Geneva discussions on security and stability in South Caucasus. He underlined that by the next round of talks, new draft paper on non-use of force would be elaborated based on Russian draft proposal. Chochiev informed that after the ninth round of talks, the Russian side had elaborated an alternative draft agreement on non-use of force, which stipulated that each of the sides (Georgia, South Ossetia, Abkhazia) would unilaterally give its guarantees of non-use of force: “The Georgian side did not agree with that and demanded that Russia would give these guarantees. How can it happen that the state which saved people from extermination, would give guarantees to the aggressor?”
Chochiev informed that by next meeting, new draft would be elaborated on the basis of the Russian proposal: “The South Ossetian side will also propose its amendments. More concretely, if for instance, the press-release does not explain the opinions of all the parties, South Ossetia would not participate in the discussion. In this case, either the Geneva process is changed or we will have to withdraw from the discussions”. According to Chochiev, throughout the nine meetings in Geneva, there were no major positive results. “As the head of the delegation, I find it difficult to inform the public and the government on the results. The only positive results is the possibility to present our country equally to other states”, underscored the Plenipotentiary. As to the work on clarifying the fate of the missing South Ossetians, the Plenipotentiary reminded that on 29 and 30 March Georgia had released 6 persons without any prior notification. “Before that we had been working on their results without any results. I have emphasized that these people were detained illegally. Georgians should be tried for that. The Georgian delegation did not give any explanation to the fact of our citizens’ release. Nonetheless, our response was that event if all South Ossetians are released, South Ossetia will not reengage into the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) before the Georgian authorities provide information on missing South Ossetians”, underlined Chochiev. According to Chochiev, the release of the six South Ossetians is an achievement of international organizations, “not because they love us, but to show the world that they at lease do something”. Talking about the refugee problem, Boris Chochiev expressed his assuredness that it is senseless to talk about the return of refugees before there non-use of force guarantees. “Residents of South Ossetia who left the republic in August 2008 should admit that South Ossetia is an independent, sovereign state. They demand for security guarantees and of course, we are not going to kill anyone, but we are not going to let in those people who were fighting against South Ossetia”, he concluded.
