On 5 October 2010, the third tripartite meeting of representatives of South Ossetia, Russia and Georgia under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) took place at the border with South Ossetia, in the Georgian village of Ergneti. The meeting was held in the framework of the mechanism to look into the issue of the missing persons to identify their fate. This was reported by the Deputy Special Representative for Post-Conflict Settlement to the President of South Ossetia Merab Chigoev.
According to him, the meeting took place against the background of the Report by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Tomas Hammarberg based on the findings of the independent experts, who, upon the request of South Ossetia, were monitoring the criminal investigation into the abduction of citizens of South Ossetia Khachirov, Khugaev and Pliev.
"From our side, we have presented additional evidences not only on these three citizens of South Ossetia, but also about Kabisov, who was also abducted 8 August 2008, and spent much time in prison in Khashuri (Georgia). There testimonies of our citizens who were held together with him in pretrial detention facilities in Georgia. Subsequently, the latter were exchanged for Georgian armed forces representatives, " said Chigoev.
He also stressed that all South Ossetian citizens who have gone missing since August of 2008 (so far - it's seven people) were civilians.
"If these people were killed, it actually turns out that the Georgian military or law enforcement bodies of Georgia have killed innocent people", said Chigoev.
He noted that the ICRC, which chaired this format meetings, is an organization trying as much as possible to minimize politicization of the issues discussed, including the findings of the report of Mr. Hammarberg.
The South Ossetian side, according to Chigoev, said that it reserves the right to assess the results of these meetings. He said that so far the date of the next meeting has not been determined yet.
"If we consider that these meetings have no future, we will withdraw our participation in these format. In any case, there is a hope that soon we will get a clear answer to our legitimate and reasonable demands from law enforcement bodies and officials of Georgia participating in these meetings", - stressed Chigoev.
"We demand that the Georgian side carefully considers our enquiries to give us information on the fate of all our citizens who are in the hands of law enforcement bodies of Georgia. Otherwise, we see no prospects for the continuation of our meetings in these format, "- concluded Chigoev.
