Working meeting of the South Ossetian delegation at the GID, headed by Murat Dzhioev, the Plenipotentiary of the President of the Republic of South Ossetia on post-conflict settlement, and the Co-Chairs of the Discussions, representing the EU, the OSCE and the UN, took place in Tskhinval on September 12.
The agenda of two working groups at the coming 41st round scheduled for October was discussed in detail at the meeting.
Main attention during the discussion was drawn to the security situation. As it was emphasized, in view of Georgian harmonization with NATO, conclusion of a legally binding agreement on non-use of force between the Republic of South Ossetia and Georgia remains the absolute priority for maintaining security and stability in the region.
Despite the relative stability in regions, adjacent to the state border between South Ossetia and Georgia, the participants of the Discussions emphasized the necessity of strict border regime for everybody including the local population. In this regard the South Ossetian party once again reminded of the necessity to get to joint work on defining the border.
The participants noted the positive outcome of the IPRM work and the productivity of the “hot line”, organized in framework of the Mechanism.
Special attention was drawn to humanitarian issues. Once again South Ossetian party expressed concern about the untypical for the region epidemiological diseases of people and animals, which are emerging in the territory of Georgia, as well as about the work of the so-called Lugar Laboratory, located in Georgia, and the epidemic outbreaks of dangerous diseases, which have become more frequent in South Ossetia over the last years.
Issues related to the problem of missing South Ossetia citizens’ search, the problems of preservation of the Ossetian historical and cultural monuments in the territory of Georgia were discussed at the meeting. Special attention was drawn to the ban on entry to the territory of Georgia, imposed by Georgian authorities on citizens of the Russian Federation, natives of the Kazbegi region, from where nearly the whole Ossetian population had been driven out earlier. South Ossetian delegates have also expressed extreme indignation towards the cases of desecration of the Ossetian cemeteries and acts of vandalism against the Ossetian historical and cultural monuments, located in the territory of Georgia.
The participants agreed to present at the forthcoming round offers on possible changes of the format of the agenda that would allow providing improvements to the work conducted within the framework of the Geneva platform.
On the same day the Co-Chairs visited the Leningor region of the Republic, where met with the Head of the Region Administration and visited objects of social welfare under construction.
Tskhinval, September 12, 2017