The meeting of the mechanisms of prevention and reaction to incidents (MPRI), last in 2011, was held in the Georgian village of Dvani, bordering upon South Ossetia. After the meeting the Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of President of South Ossetia on post-conflict settlement Merab Chigoev reported to IA "Res", that the meeting was quite rich and productive.
"Over the period since the previous meeting on November, 22 the facts of illegal crossing of the state border of South Ossetia and Georgia have been significantly reduced - Chigoev underlined. – In total, for this period 13 boundary violations have been fixed, which is much fewer in comparison with the similar facts, which took place in recent months. "However, Chigoev has noted that the facts of crossing the border still occur, despite the ongoing explanatory conversations with the border villagers; this fact should cause anxiety. "The state border is existing and this has to be recognized by the citizens of both states - Georgia and South Ossetia", - Merab Chigoev has emphasized. According to him, preliminary agreement between the parties on transferring of the South Ossetian citizens who are under investigation in Georgia and the Georgian citizens, residing in the same situation in South Ossetia, has also been reached at the meeting. "Soon 13 people will be transferred to the Georgian side, and 15 our citizens will be transferred to South Ossetia" – Chigoev said. He has stressed that the issue on clarifying the fate of the missing persons was also discussed at the meeting. "We have once again highlighted the fact that not only our experts, but also the European Union experts came to the conclusion that at least four of the seven South Ossetian citizens were in prisons of Georgia in August 2008. And today we have raised the question that we need exhaustive explanation on these people`s whereabouts,"- Chigoev told. He added that the Georgian side initiated the admission of the international organization "Doctors without borders" to the territory of South Ossetia. "We have noted that this issue is internal to our state, but not a political one, and no one has the right to interfere in our internal affairs. However, we also stressed that this issue should be discussed only with the leadership of South Ossetia, "- Merab Chigoev has underlined. At the meeting in Dvani it was also announced the completion of the term of office of the OSCE Representative at the Geneva discussions and at the MPRI meetings- Giedrius Chekuolis. It should be noted, that the meetings within the frames of mechanisms for prevention and reaction to incidents at the border are conducted since February 2009. Representatives of South Ossetia, Georgia, Russia, European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) and the OSCE take part in these meetings.
