‘No Substantial Progress’ after 7th Ergneti Meeting

EUMM head to Georgia Erik Hoeg says that the 7th special meeting in Ergneti, which was committed to reducing tensions in the villages of Tsnelisi and Chorchana, ended without significant progress.

The Georgian State Security Service reported that the Kremlin controlled de-facto government of Tskhinvali still demands the removal of a commonplace police station from the village of Chorchana, Khashuri municipality, which is located on the Tbilisi-controlled territory.

The de-facto powers say that the crossing points to the region, which has been closed since September 4, will reopen when the police post is removed, as the post “creates threats to locals and is too close to the village of Tsnelisi [which is under Russian-control].”

“7th technical meeting in IPRM format regarding the situation in Tsnelisi-Chorchana just ended. #EUMM presented overview of developments based on its 24/7 patrolling. No substantial progress. Participants committed to continue discussions on how to de-escalate further, however.” Hoeg tweeted.

“We also raised the recent illegal detention of two Georgian citizens by the occupation forces. We were told that they have been detained for so-called illegally crossing the border and that their trial is being held in Tskhinvali now,” the Georgian State Security official Irakli Antadze said, adding that the individuals are safe.

Tensions in the zone began at the end of August, when Tbilisi opened a police post in the village of Chorchana.

Tbilisi refused to remove the police station, so the oppressing forces opened two new ‘police posts’ in the village of Chorchana, on Tbilisi-administered area and also closed so-called checkpoints.

By Beka Alexishvili