To trace the destiny of missing citizens of the Republic of South Ossetia Alan Khachirov, Soltan Pliev and Alan Khugaev was the key question of the meeting which has taken place today in the village Dvani (Georgia) within the frames of Mechanisms on prevention and reaction to incidents. As reported by the employee of the office of the plenipotentiary on the post-conflict settlement of the RSO Guram Sobaev to the news agency "RES", the Georgian party has not answered in the affirmative on this matter, having informed that the investigation process is still in progress. «We have given total information to Mr. Andzhej Tyshkevich (head of the European Union Mission of observers in Georgia) about the results of work of the European independent expert commission, which has drawn up a deed that employees of the law-enforcement agencies of Georgia participated in detention of these persons», - he has underlined. Sobaev has added that he also touched upon the issue of the other missing citizens of the RSO - Ikaev, Kabisov, Gagloev and Tedeev.
«There are witnesses who have seen these citizens of the Republic in prisons of Georgia, but the Georgian party has not given an affirmative reply on this matter», - Sobaev has noted. The second item on the agenda of the today's meeting was the question of harvesting on the land lots by the inhabitants of the frontier Georgian villages. «I have noted that if those land lots turned out to be beyond the frontier, that question should have been solved at leadership level, and we would not have touched upon this issue any more», - Sobaev has underlined. The question on the detained citizens of Georgia who illegally crossed the frontier of South Ossetia has also been raised at the meeting. «We have given the total information about them to the Georgian party: nobody is offending them, nobody is using force towards them, they are in the same position, as well as the citizens of the Republic of South Ossetia, who are in prisons of Georgia. The Georgian party has declared that one of them is seriously sick and they have asked to release him. We have good experts, he will be examined, his state of health will be studied, and if he needs the treatment he will get it. And what about release- it`s a second question. We have had a practice of mutual transferring of the detainees before, and if the Georgian party agrees we are ready to resume this practice», - the employee of the office of the plenipotentiary has said. He has underlined that the South Ossetian party adheres to the exchange principle -«all for all». Speaking about the prevention of cases of the RSO frontier violation by the inhabitants of Georgia, Sobaev has reminded, that the South Ossetian side repeatedly addressed to the Georgian authorities with the request that representatives of the law-enforcement agencies and local administrations would have notified the population of the frontier villages on the concrete line of the state border, that they would have been made answerable for its illegal crossing. Head of the European Union mission of observers Andzhej Tyshkevich has said to the journalists that discussion of destiny of all the arrested persons was the key question of the meeting. «We have explained to each other the whereabouts of these persons who are in various lists, how are they feeling themselves and this is the main thing. I hope that at the following meeting we`ll achieve some progress in resolving the problems which we have considered today», - Tyshkevich has concluded. The representative of OSCE Gedrius Chekuolis has declared the journalists that the arrested persons of both the parties should be released as soon as possible. «There is a general rule, which mister Tyshkevich and I are insisting on: detention should last an hour the maximum. The area is small, everybody knows each other by sight, and by name and one should not build the artificial barriers. The other issues have also been resolving. One should also use "a hot line" to exchange better information on maneuvers in order the region to be calmer», - Chekuolis has emphasized. He has also touched upon a question of tracing the destiny of Alan Khachirov, Soltan Pliev and Alan Khugaev. «We are informed about the missing persons and we urge on the investigation to be proceeded effectively and not to be protracted. The total number of the missing persons is seven, but today we have been talking about the three of them, but the investigation will proceed effectively», - he has underlined. The representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia participating in the meeting Shota Utiashvili has said to the journalists that the question of tracing the destiny of Alan Khachirov, Soltan Pliev and Alan Khugaev «is always on the agenda». «At present our Public Prosecutor`s Office is dealing with the families of the victims, and we hope that we will manage to get some information, that will help us to find out the destiny of these three persons», - he has said. He has also mentioned the existing agreement between the authorities of South Ossetia and Georgia, according to which, the local residents, violating the border, « should not be detained at all, but this agreement is often broken». The following meeting within the frames of MPRI is scheduled for November, 21st, 2011.
