Ergneti Meeting Discusses Road Construction near Breakaway S.Ossetia Contact Line
ERGNETI, Eastern Georgia- Representatives of the Georgian Government and the breakaway South Ossetia region held their 64th meeting in Ergneti, near the occupation line of the breakaway region.
The construction of roads by Russian occupants, which run-through peasants ‘gardens in Jariasheni village, was a major topic at the 64th round of the regular Ergneti meetings for Incident Prevention and Response Mechamism (IPRM) held on Tuesday.
Representatives from the Ossetian side have announced that this road construction is a special emergency line for fire, which aims to help locals to cope with seasonal fire in the fields.
The Deputy Director of the Interior Ministry's Analytical Department, David Kobakhidze, said that Georgia will discuss road construction issue at the Geneva meeting next week.
The meeting has traditionally been co-facilitated by the OSCE and the EUMM in Georgia.
The co-facilitators encouraged the use of the hotline mechanism in such cases to avoid misunderstanding and to keep the situation calm.
Participants at the meeting positively acknowledged the recent coordinated release of detainees from Tbilisi, Sukhumi and Tskhinvali.
The next IPRM meeting will take place on 20th April 2016.
This is the 64th meeting of the IPRM and the EUMM, which is an unarmed civilian monitoring mission established by the European Union on September 15th 2008 to contribute to the stabilization of the situation on the ground following the August 2008 conflict.
The EUMM monitors the full compliance of all sides with the EU brokered Six-point Agreement from the 12th August, signed by both Georgia and Russia, and the agreement on Implementing Measures from 8th September 2008.
The meetings are an opportunity to identify and discuss potential risks and follow-up on incidents and issues affecting the communities on a daily basis.
The Georgian government forces fought two wars against Russian and separatists in South Ossetia from 1991-2008.
The wars left hundreds dead and led to the ethnic cleansing of thousands of ethnic Georgians. Moscow recognized South Ossetia and the other occupied Abkhazia region as independent states following the 2008 war.
International law and the United Nations continue to state that the regions remain part of Georgia.
Edited by Chloe Diamond