Presentation of the International Tracing Service (ITS) has taken place in the capital of South Ossetia. The event was attended by representatives of the South Ossetian media, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the community and students of the South-Ossetian State University.
South Ossetia is determined to continue open and positive dialogue and attached significant importance to Geneva discussions, stated the president of the Republic of South Ossetia Eduard KOkoity at the meeting with the Co-Chairs of Geneva discussions in Tskhinval. "We are certainly disappointed with the statements of Georgian officials that the consider the discussions as a process not as an instrument to defuse tensions. It undermines the image of the discussions, since today, this is the only existing mechanism which allows implementation of provisions set forth in Sarkozy-Medvedev agreement", said Kokoity. Taking about the necessity to sign a bilateral agreement between South Ossetia and Georgia, the president emphasized that the Republic needs guarantees of non-reoccurrence of the August 2008 events.
The release of the three Georgian citizens and almost completed mission of the Council of Europe (CoE) Commissioner for Human Rights Tomas Hammarberg on finding out the fate of the missing South Ossetians, gives the hope for resumption of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM), stated the EU Envoy Pierre Morel while visiting Tskhinval with the delegation of the Geneva discussions' Co-Chairs.
The delegation arrived in South Ossetia to conduct preparatory consultations for the forthcoming 11th round of Geneva discussions to take place 7-8 June 2010. Ambassador Morel underlined that the resumption of the IPRM was an important component of the Co-Chair's work, since the Mechanism was created within the frames of Geneva discussions.
Today, the Geneva talks Co-Chairs are expected to pay a visit to South Ossetia. These are representatives of the EU, OSEC and UN, reported the office of the Plenipotentiary for Post-Conflict Settlement. The delegation will be headed by the EU Co-Chair Pierre Morel.
The opinion of the UN General Assembly might not coincide with the position of the whole organization, stated the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General Johann Verbeke commenting on the General Assembly's Resolution on return of refugees to Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Verbeke underlined that UN General Assembly and concretely the UN as such are different things: "The position of the General Assembly does not imply the position of the whole organization. Though we are members to the UN, each one of us reserves the right to work and help people whenever they are".
The Special Representative for Post-Conflict Settlement Boris Chochiev drafted a letter regarding the draft report of the PACE representative Corien Jonker “Humanitarian consequences of war between Georgia and Russia”.
The draft letter states, inter alia:
”The report is has been drafted after the visits of Ms. Corien Jonker to North Ossetia-Alania, South Ossetia and Georgia to monitor the implementation of PACE Resolution № 1648 (2009).