After a long break, a preparatory meeting of working groups within the frames of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) was held. The meeting was convened upon the initiative of the Co-Chairmen of the Geneva talks on security in the Caucasus and the EUMM in Georgia. The Deputy Special Representative for Post-Conflict Settlement Merab Chigoev informed the IA RES about the meeting held in Dvani (Kareli district of Georgia). “The meeting was attended by the RF delegation, EUMM, Georgian and Ossetian sides.”
The agenda included four questions. The first issue raised by the Georgian side was the 12 August shooting. The second problem was voiced by the RF side – clarification of the fate of the RF pilot missing in action in Georgia, and the fate of two soldiers who were detained by the Georgian law enforcement bodies.
Our delegation had suggested two issues to be included into the agenda. The first is the fate of five South Ossetian citizens who, according to available data, were detained by the law enforcement bodies of the Georgian side. Among those five, three persons – Khugaev, Khachirove and Pliev were factually abducted from the territory of South Ossetia on 13 October 2008, two other – Kabisov and Ikaev were seized on 8 August 2008. According to recently obtained data, Ikaev was detained for quite a long time at the military base in Vaziani together with other Ossetians who were captured during the war. Kabisov was kept for some time in pre-trial detention facility at Police Department in Khashuri (Georgia). It is worth mentioning that both persons were not weapon bearers, they were not military. Despite this, Georgian armed forces sized them and we still know nothing about them. Regardless the efforts taken by the South Ossetian side, the fate of these five men was not clarified,” said Chigoev.
According to him, at Dvani meeting, representatives of the South Ossetian delegation had once again firmly raised this issue with the EUMM observers. “They stated that according to their mandate, the observers have no right to deal with investigation, nor with preliminary information checking. They have the right to raise the problems with the Georgian side. And the Georgian side did not provide us with any verified information, however we are sure that they know everything about the fate of our abducted citizens” stated Chigoev.
He informed that the second issue included into agenda by the South Ossetian side at the meeting in Dvani was the recent “odd interview given by Hansjor Haber, EUMM Head, to German newspaper Berliner Zeitung. “We stated that Haber, as the EUMM, can say whatever he wants, but as one of the participants to the working groups, he has not right to misinterpret the facts and omit important information on the situation at the borderline. The point is, Mr.Haber had groundlessly stated that throughout the period since October 2008, that is, when the EUMM started its monitoring mission in the area adjacent to South Ossetiaq, 7 Georgian policemen were killed, and the EUMM patrol vehicle was subjected to armed attack and the car driver was killed. He did not say that four of these policemen were killed in Zugdidi district of Georgia, that is, in absolutely different area. He did not say that Ossetians had nothing in common with the armed attack at the patrol vehicle, since it happened on the territory of Georgia. It appears that if Georgian policemen were killed and this is reported by the EUMM observer, the readers can easily draw a conclusion that they were killed by Ossetians, while we have nothing to do with this. I told Haber that such kind of statements complicate the situation and may further fuel the tensions, and instead of contributing to tension, he should lift it”, underscored Chigoev.
In the meantime, Chigoev stressed that in general the meeting in Dvani was quite difficult. “We expressed our viewpoints on some of the raised issues. We also stated that any incident, including shootings, would not give any good to either of the sides. In order to prevent such incidents and for their discussion we should be frank and open, so that there is no mistrust towards each other. Unfortunately, this feeling remains, because no information has been provided, even by the EUMM, about the fate of our citizens”, stated Chigoev.
He explained that in relation to the shooting incident at the Georgian police checkpoint on 12 August, the issues raised by the Georgian side, the Georgian side explained that on that day “the checkpoint in Dvani, Kareli district came under fire”. “The fire was allegedly opened from the village of Mugut, Znaur district of South Ossetia. The fact was confirmed by representatives of our Defense Ministry. Since nobody is interested in aggravation of the situation, we stated that if the faire was opened from the South Ossetian side, we will take all necessary steps to investigate the incident. We demanded the same approach towards the incidents which are provoked by the Georgian side”, said Chigoev.
The meeting resulted in the agreement to promptly react to incidents related to shooting and unintentional border crossing. It was agreed that the next meeting would be held on 4 September in the Georgian village of Ergenti located at the border with South Ossetia.
