About the 17th meeting within the frames of the international discussions on safety and stability in Transcaucasia
On October, 4, 2011 the seventeenth round of the Geneva international discussions on safety and stability in Transcaucasia has come to the end. The delegations of the Republic of South Ossetia, Republic of Abkhazia, Georgia, the Russian Federation, the USA, and also representatives of the EU, the United Nations and OSCE on equal grounds participate in the Geneva discussions which are conducted since October, 2008 according to the multilateral agreements. The delegation of the Republic of South Ossetia was headed by the Plenipotentiary of the President Boris Chochiev. During the meeting the exchange of opinions about the situation, which is recognized as stable, has been discussed. At the same time the delegation of South Ossetia has presented numerous facts of infringement of the frontier by Georgia. It has been noted that the special services of Georgia continue to use pilotless reconnaissance aircraft. From June, 2011 34 cases of infringement of air space of the Republic of South Ossetia by the Georgian unmanned aerial vehicles have been fixed. The South Ossetian side has focused on the fact that the European Union observers continue supervising the South Ossetian territory in defiance of their mandate. In total 96 cases of illegal supervision, including 9 cases of a photo and a video shooting of the RSO territory have been registered. At the same time it has been emphasized that at the end of August the European observers have played a positive role in prevention of the scale provocative action planned in Tbilisi, the so-called «world march» which could lead to dangerous destabilization of situation at the Georgian-South Ossetian frontier. Results of the three last meetings within the frames of Mechanisms on prevention and reaction to incidents have been positively estimated. During the meetings the methods on preventing the frontier incidents have been discussed, too. The South Ossetian delegation has initiated to continue practice of mutual transferring of detainees; however this offer, supported by the other participants, has been blocked by the Georgian party. Presentation of the Russian Federation project on protection of the Republic of South Ossetia and the Republic of Abkhazia has taken place at the session. Russia, in particular, has offered the USA and the EU to advocate as guarantors of implementing the unilateral statements made earlier by heads of South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Georgia. The Russian offer has been supported by the South Ossetian and the Abkhazian delegations, the Georgian party has opposed to this initiative; then the representatives of South Ossetia have suggested suspending temporarily the Geneva discussions till the next ruler of Georgia, capable to dialogue on a problem of strengthening safety and stability, will come to power. The South Ossetian delegation has informed the participants of the Geneva discussions on the onward development of political processes in the Republic in connection with the presidential elections of the Republic of South Ossetia planned for November, 13, and also about a course of the post-war restoration in the Republic of South Ossetia, successfully carried out thanks to the scale aid of the Russian Federation. Thus, it has been noted that under the far-fetched political pretexts sabotaging the humanitarian assistance by the international organizations, is still proceeding. The cochairmen have offered to discuss the issue of confidence-building measures. Having underlined interest of the countries in safety and stability strengthening, the South Ossetian and the Abkhazian representatives have declared that a key question for restoration of mutual trust is the recognition of the state independence of the Republic of South Ossetia and the Republic of Abkhazia by Georgia. The delegation of South Ossetia has demanded to continue investigation of cases of the missing citizens of South Ossetia. The obstacles which the refugees face, returning to Leningorsky district owing to the Georgian authorities, trans-boundary of people and cargoes have also been mentioned at the discussions. Discussion of issues of water supply, irrigation and restoration of hydraulic engineering constructions has been continued, too. It has been again emphasized that on the threshold of the forthcoming winter Georgia continues to block renewal of gas supply in Leningorsky district, having broken the three-year efforts of OSCE on resolving this problem. The following round of the Geneva discussions is planned for December, 14, 2011.
