Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues Giorgi Khaindrava and Georgian Public Defender Sozar Subari, who visited the capital of breakaway South Ossetia Tskhinvali on May 29, admitted that the Georgian law enforcement agencies violated the rights of those Ossetian civilians who were arrested on May 27.
Over 40 civilians, who were reportedly arrested under the pretext of violating Georgian visa requirements, were released on May 28. According to the South Ossetian side only 2 out of the 46 civilians that were arrested were residents of Russia’s North Ossetian Republic.
Sozar Subari and Giorgi Khaindrava met with some of the victims of the incident, who said that they were captured by masked armed men and then brought to the Gori police station, where they were beaten up.
“What I have heard so far indicates that it was a clear violation of human rights by the Georgian police,” Sozar Subari said.
“All the victims with whom I have talked gave similar testimonies against two men who were torturing them [in the Gori police station]. They [victims] were describing methods of torture, which I thought was forgotten in Georgia,” Subari said later on May 29.
“This is a clear violation of human rights… These people [Ossetians] are our citizens and although we are in a conflict we should not let anyone violate their rights,” Giorgi Khaindrava told reporters after talks in Tskhinvali.
“What has happened is directed towards destabilization of situation… whoever they are, those who have committed this should be held responsible,” Giorgi Khaindrava said.
But he also said citing victims of the incident that some policemen from the Gori police station helped them in release.
It remains unclear whether those masked men, who detained Ossetian cilivials, were troops from the Georgian Defense Ministry or from the Interior Ministry.
No official from the Georgian law enforcement agencies has made any comment so far regarding the May 27 incident.
The State Minister and Public Defender also met in Tskhinvali with the breakaway region’s Deputy Chairman of the government Boris Chochiev and Interior Minister Mikhail Mindzaev.
The incident triggered the South Ossetian side to once again accuse the Georgian authorities and, in particular, the “hawkish team” led by Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili, of attempting to destabilize the situation in the conflict zone.
On May 29, the authorities in the breakaway region called for the signing of an agreement on security guarantees and non-resumption of hostilities – a proposal initiated by the Head of OSCE Mission to Georgia Ambassador Roy Reeve.
Tskhinvali also called for immediate high-level talks between the top leadership from Georgia, South Ossetia and Russia, with the participation of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht, to sign the agreement on non-resumption of hostilities.
The Georgian side is against this document, as Tbilisi considers its peace plan over South Ossetian conflict resolution as enough of a security guarantee.
In a statement issued on May 29, the breakaway South Ossetian authorities, who have always fiercely criticized the OSCE observers in the conflict zone for being biased, hailed “the OSCE’s role in preventing a further escalation of violence against the peaceful population during the illegal actions of the Georgian law enforcement agencies on May 27.”
“We are sure that at its session of the Permanent Council the OSCE will give a principled assessment of the actions undertaken by the Georgian law enforcement agencies,” the breakaway South Ossetian authorities’ stated.
Meanwhile, the South Ossetian Press and Information Committee reported that South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity met with residents of the Georgian villages of Kekhvi and Eredvi on May 29 and vowed to provide security and safety to the civilians regardless of their ethnicity.
Arrests of Ossetian civilians on May 27, motives of which still remain unexplained by the Georgian law enforcement agencies, was the major incident that took place in the conflict zone after January 30, when a confrontation between Georgian troops and Russian peacekeepers.