Ergneti 86th IPRM Meeting Lasts 10 Hours

After a two-month pause, the 86th Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) meeting in Ergneti was held for 10 hours on Tuesday but still ended without consensus.

The European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) in Georgia says the recent developments that took place in Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia (region, the occupation line and its vicinities) in the period of March 1, 2018 – May 15, 2018 were discussed at the meeting.

Erik Høeg, Head of the European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM), and Ambassador Günther Bächler, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South Caucasus, co-facilitated the meeting.  

The representatives of the State Security Service of Georgia raised the issue of the murder of 35 year old Archil Tatunashvili, who was tortured and killed by the occupant forces in breakaway Tskhinvali on February 23 and categorically demanded transfer of his internal organs, which were absent after the body was handed over to Georgia.

However, a representative of de facto Tskhinvali Murat Jioev stated Tatunashvili was not tortured and died from the heart attack, as the breakaway South Ossetia claimed before. He added after the meeting that since March 1, the de facto leadership of Tskhinvali detained 13 citizens of Georgia for illegally crossing the so-called border.

Special attention was paid to the case of Davit Basharuli, who died in uncertain circumstances in the occupied Akhalgori district in 2014, the Georgian Ministry of Reconciliation and Civil Equality reported.

The participants of the meeting also discussed every important incident that occurred recently in the occupied region and its vicinities, posing a threat to stability and security.

The co-facilitators stressed the need for the EUMM to be allowed to conduct its monitoring activities unhindered, in line with its mandate. 

The next IPRM meeting will take place in June 2018.

By Thea Morrison