Statement of the South Ossetian delegation on the 24th round of the Geneva international discussions on security and stability in the South Caucasus
June 25-26, 2013, a regular meeting of the international discussions on security and stability in Transcaucasia was held in Geneva. It was attended by delegations of the Republic of South Ossetia, the Republic of Abkhazia, Georgia, the Russian Federation, the United States, as well as by the EU, the UN and the OSCE representatives. South Ossetian delegation was led by Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy for post-conflict settlement Murat Dzhioev.
The main attention was paid to the issues of security and stability in the region, as well as to non-use of force by Georgia against South Ossetia and Abkhazia in accordance with the Medvedev – Sarkozy agreements.
When discussing the issue of security and stability along the South Ossetian-Georgian border, the meeting participants noted the usefulness and effectiveness of mechanisms to prevent and respond to incidents. In connection with the propaganda campaign spread out by the Georgian authorities against the actions in South Ossetia on defining the borderline between the two countries, the South Ossetian delegation has presented the materials confirming that all the works are carried out within the framework of the sovereign acts of the Republic of South Ossetia in its own territory, at a certain distance from the borderline, affecting neither the territory, nor the sovereignty of Georgia. It was stated that all the actions of the Georgian side in this regard were pure propaganda. All claims against the Russian border guards are unfounded, because they act solely in accordance with a bilateral Russian-South Ossetian international agreement.
The representatives of South Ossetia again called on the authorities of Georgia to start working together on the delimitation and demarcation of the state border and offered the co-chairs of the Geneva discussions to act as mediators.
In support of the overall commitment to the principle of non-use of force and in support and development of the unilateral declaration of non-use of force made by presidents of South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Georgia, the South Ossetian delegation reiterated the need to accelerate the work on the preparation and signing of a legally binding agreement on non-use of force between Georgia and the Republic of South Ossetia, as well as between Georgia and the Republic of Abkhazia. However, the destructive position adopted by the Georgian delegation did not make it possible to promote negotiations on the non-use of force, as well as the text of the joint statement on the commitment to the universally recognized norms of international law, including the principle of non-use of force, which had been the key issue at the previous rounds of the Geneva discussions.
A number of humanitarian issues were also discussed, the most urgent of which was the issue of the fate of the missing persons and citizens of South Ossetia, kept in prisons of Georgia on some trumped-up charges. The delegations of South Ossetia and Abkhazia emphasized the destructive actions of the Georgian authorities, which had been submitting the refugee problem to the UN General Assembly from year to year, thereby eliminating the possibility of discussing it at the Geneva talks. However, it was noted that South Ossetia and Abkhazia were ready to send their representatives to the UN General Assembly to represent the position of these states on this issue.
Within the 24 round of the Geneva discussions was also held the information session at which international experts presented the reports on international legality and validity of unilateral acts of states.
