New EUMM Bulletin on Communication and Conflict Prevention

The EU Neighbors website published yesterday that the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) in Georgia has released the latest edition of its regular bulletin ‘Monitor.'

It explains the use of the hotline used to communicate across the Administrative Boundary Lines (ABLs), to avoid a build-up of tensions that could lead to conflict. The hotline is used in many circumstances, including “detentions, access to emergency medical care, access to agricultural land and the effect on local residents of the installation of fences, barbed wire and information signs along the ABLs with Abkhazia and South Ossetia.”

The hotline, used daily, “is monitored by two holders who communicate with their counterparts via mobile phone, Skype, in technical meetings or in face-to-face discussions at the monthly meetings of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism in Gali and Ergneti.”

The EUMM Monitor aims “to provide the general public – in Georgia, the EU Member States and internationally – with wide-ranging and specific information about the work of the EUMM in Georgia.”

The latest issue of the Monitor can be accessed here.

The EUMM was deployed to Georgia in September 2008 following the EU-brokered Six-Point Agreement that ended the August war between Russia and Georgia. It contributes to stabilization, normalization and confidence building between the conflict parties. The mission provides civilian monitoring of parties' actions, including full compliance with the Six-Point Agreement and subsequent implementing measures throughout Georgia. It also informs European policy in support of a durable political solution for Georgia.

By Samantha Guthrie

Photo: European Union