"Increasing of the number of violators of the state border between South Ossetia and Georgia is due to the lack of the information among the population of the border regions of Georgia," said the reporters Deputy Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy of South Ossetia on post-conflict settlement Khokh Gagloyty after the meeting of participants of Mechanisms on Prevention and Reaction to Incidents (MPRI), held today in the Georgian village of Ergneti at the border of South Ossetia.
According to Gagloyty, the MPRI participants noted the increased number of detainees at the border between the Republic of South Ossetia and Georgia.
"South Ossetian side has noted that a significant cause of increasing the number of detainees at the border is the lack of the information among the Georgian population of the border area," - said Gagloyty.
He has explained that a relevant agreement between South Ossetia and Georgia was reached during a meeting of MPRI in 2011.
"We reminded the Georgian side of the so-called gentlemen's agreement reached in 2011 - said Gagloyty. - It refers to the desire of the Georgian and South Ossetian sides’ humane approach to the cases of illegal crossing of the state border. It was also agreed to carry on an information campaign on the frontier. The participants were also informed that this agreement meant the approach, but not the priority. Priority is the fact of passing the state border of the sovereign Republic of South Ossetia and, therefore, the mode of functioning of the state border".
Gagloyty has noted that during today's meeting the South Ossetian side commented on the statement of the head of the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) in Georgia Andrzej Tyszkiewicz May 28, that the priority of the Mission is the freedom of movement of citizens in the area of the observers monitoring.
"We have expressed incomprehension of this position, as in accordance with the basic agreement reached in 2008 by the presidents of Russia and France, Medvedev and Sarkozy, the EU Monitoring Mission performs the functions of monitoring in accordance with the postulate of these agreements, which states that the EUMM is the guarantor of non-use of force and just in this context should be the monitoring of the EU observers "- said Gagloyty.
The envoy has also said that Tyshkevich completed his work in Georgia as head of the EU Monitoring Mission.
"The South Ossetian side appreciated the entire period of the EU Monitoring Mission headed by Tyshkevich - said Gagloyty. - During his tenure the monitoring of the Mission met the highest level of professionalism".
On the agenda of the meeting, according to Gagloyty, was also the question of the villagers of Zardiantkari.
"We have once again raised the issue of the inhabitants of this village - said Gagloyty. - Georgian officials said that the situation there is calm. But this position does not quite correspond to the reality. The situation in the village, is, perhaps calm, but the residents of the Ossetian origin left the village. And their issue has not been resolved to date. "
Gagloyty has also noted that the question of engineering support of the state border of South Ossetia, widely discussed in Georgia, was not raised by the Georgian participants of the meeting.
"I think the issue was not raised by them due to the lack of argumentation, the facts on the issue", - said Gagloyty.
He has also informed that today, in the format of MPRI was reached an agreement on a meeting of relatives of the missing citizens of South Ossetia with the Prosecutor General of Georgia.
