At the end of May it is planned to arrange the meeting of relatives of the missing citizens of South Ossetia with the Prosecutor General of Georgia. This was declared by the OSCE co-chairman of the Geneva discussions on security in Transcaucasia Andriy Deshchitsa at the briefing in Tskhinval.
"Two days ago we met in Tbilisi with the Prosecutor General and Minister of Justice of Georgia. We saw the desire and willingness of the Prosecutor General to help. He assured that he had revived the investigation of these cases, giving the relevant instructions to start the retrial on the missing persons as soon as possible. We hope that he will come to the meeting with the relatives of the South Ossetian missing persons with the concrete results, "- said Deshchitsa.
He has added, that at today's meeting of the co-chairs of the Geneva discussions held in Tskhinval once again was discussed the adoption of the international legal instrument for the non-use of force by Georgia against South Ossetia.
"There is a desire to adopt such a document as soon as possible. We hope that the next round of the Geneva talks will be the next step in this direction. We'll see whether this document is supported by all the participants of the discussions. But all the parties have this desire, and we are working on it, searching for different options to accelerate the process, "- he said.
In turn, the EU co-chairman of the Geneva discussions Philippe Lefort has said that today in Tskhinval have also been discussed humanitarian issues and he has expressed hope for further work in this direction.
"I think that today we have had a very successful meeting, and there is great hope that we will succeed in some discussed areas ", - said Lefort.
During the visit to South Ossetia Co-chairs of the Geneva discussions are going to visit Leningor district and the Zonkar reservoir.
As explained by the Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy of South Ossetia for post-conflict settlement Murat Dzhioev, turbines of the Zonkar reservoir had not been repaired for many years and were in disrepair.
"According to those projects that OSCE implemented till 2008, the remained funds allocated at that time by the European Union for the rehabilitation of the conflict zone were allocated to repair one turbine, currently the other one is under repair. Therefore, the co-chairs want to see the process of this work ", - said Dzhioev.
He also said that the main theme of this meeting was preparation for the next round of the Geneva talks, scheduled for the end of June.
"The main issue of the Geneva discussions is to ensure the security of South Ossetia, and we noted the need for more active work on the preparation of the basic document on non-use of force by Georgia against South Ossetia. The work in this direction is consistent, and we believe that the first step is to adopt a joint statement of the Geneva discussions on the commitment of all parties to the principle of non-use of force. The work on this statement is carried out by the experts, and we have expressed the desire to adopt this statement at the next round, "- said the envoy.
He has added, it is necessary to accelerate the work on the joint statement, which should be the legally binding "because the unilateral declaration of the Georgian authorities is not the basis for peace for the people of South Ossetia."
"We believe it is necessary to sign the agreement at the highest level, and it must be the international legally binding document. There was much talk about humanitarian issues. First of all, we discussed the fate of the missing citizens of the RSO and we were assured this issue to be clarified. It was also raised the question of the fate of the people convicted in Georgia. Our proposals remain the same - we are ready to exchange on the principle of ''all for all,'' but our position remains the same - these people are convicted primarily for political reasons, "- said Dzhioev.
The South Ossetian side briefed the co-chairs on the situation along the state border with Georgia.
"We have noted that the situation, on the whole, is calm, but recently, the cases of violation of the state border have become more frequent. The Co-Chairs have also noted that they receive information that allegedly, the South Ossetian side violates the human rights when crossing the border. We have stated that this is the state border between South Ossetia and Georgia, and everybody must follow the state border regime, "- said Dzhioev.
The UN official Hailu Mamo has added that at the meeting was also discussed "the question of freedom of movement and de-isolation". He said that the co-chairs were going to organize an information session in October, where the well-known experts would talk about the international practice in this area in order to find possible solutions to the problems that exist between South Ossetia and Georgia.
