On Thursday afternoon, the border patrol of the State Security Committee of South Ossetia in the village of Tsnelis stopped the patrol of the EU Observer Mission, which violated the state border of South Ossetia, said the head of the South Ossetian delegation at the meetings in the format of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) Yegor Kochiev.
“At 12:50 a.m. Uista (Tsnelis) the border patrol of the KGB of the Republic stopped the patrol of the EU Monitoring Mission, which violated the border. Having made sure that it was indeed a patrol of the Observer Mission, the border guards pointed out the violation and offered to leave the Republic, which has been done,” said Kochiev.
He has noted that the South Ossetian side immediately activated a “hot line”, through which the Observer Mission was stated that such steps were unacceptable, since it seriously undermines the already fragile security situation in the area.
“These actions of the observers are provocative on the eve of the next technical meeting on the issue of defusing the situation in the Uista region,” Yegor Kochiev emphasized.
Earlier, the KGB of South Ossetia stated that the Georgian side created a distorted picture of the situation on the site of the South Ossetian-Georgian state border in the area of the village Uinta, Znaur district of the Republic.
“Meanwhile, the materials at the Committee’s disposal testify to the active work of employees of the Georgian security forces in preparing for large-scale provocation in this area. Thus, the Georgian leadership creates additional security threats, primarily for the local South Ossetian population, as well as Georgian police officers who are in the sectors of direct influence of the border forces of South Ossetia, " the KGB said.
The KGB of South Ossetia draws attention and emphasizes that the presence of the Georgian police and a roadblock near the South Ossetian settlement significantly increases the risks of military danger and can lead to an open armed conflict.
Along the border
In late August, South Ossetia reported that the Georgian police had put up a roadblock on the territory of the Republic near the village of Tsnelis in Znaur district. The authorities of South Ossetia demanded that Georgia remove the police post by August 30, otherwise they promised to take "legal means to protect the population from emerging threats," but Georgia continued to equip roasblock. Later, the South Ossetian border guards occupied a height above the Georgian police checkpoint and began to equip their posts as part of a special humanitarian operation to thwart Georgian attempts to establish control over part of South Ossetian territory.
The situation is being discussed at technical meetings of the format of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism with the participation of representatives of the OSCE, EU and the Russian Federation, but so far to no avail.
