107th IPRM Meeting Held in Ergneti

The 107th Incident Prevention and Response Mechanisms (IPRM) meeting took place today in Ergneti village near the occupation line of Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia.

The EU Monitoring Mission (EUMM), whose co-facilitating the meeting together with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), said that talks focused on the prolonged closure of crossing points, current security developments, “borderization,” and the situation in Chorchana-Tsnelisi area.

Co-facilitators from the EUMM and the OSCE, Marek Szczygieł and Ambassador Viorel Moşanu, respectively, commended Tskhinvali’s decision to open crossing points during Easter which allowed people to visit religious sites and graveyards.

At the meeting, the co-facilitators reiterated their call for a re-opening of the crossing points and proposed concrete ways of reaching that objective, per EUMM.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Viorel Moşanu, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South Caucasus, urged participants “to find additional solutions to reduce the problems of the conflict-affected population.”

The EUMM and OSCE representatives also raised their concerns about the high number of active detention cases of Georgian citizens in Tskhinvali Region and urged a humanitarian approach towards their resolution.

Also according to the EUMM, participants agreed on increased dialogue in the IPRM format and through the EUMM-managed hotline during the agricultural season, while praising the technical IPRM meeting on irrigation issues at the end of April. MORE

Meanwhile, the State Security Service of Georgia said that during the meeting Tbilisi stressed the unconditional release of Georgian citizens arbitrarily detained by Russian occupying forces as well as other illegal actions taken by Russia in the occupied region.

Tbilisi also raised military exercises conducted by occupation forces, along with “borderization,” and restrictions on movement across dividing line.

On its part, Moscow-backed Tskhinvali representative Igor Kochiev said the S. Ossetian agenda remained focused on “violations of the state border” and the presence of a Georgian police post in the Chorchana-Tsnelisi area, as reported by the Tskhinvali-based RES news agency reported.

Kochiev also said 12 Georgian citizens had violated the “state border” since the last IPRM meeting, but that all of them were expelled “without penalty,” with four violators also being subject to fines and then removed from the region.

The next IPRM meeting has been slated for September 23 with participants ready to meet earlier if necessary.

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