On 6 January, the Head of the EU Monitoring Mission, Ambassador Haber called for an Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) meeting early the following week to discuss freedom of movement and detainee issues close to the South Ossetian administrative boundary line. This would involve, as usual, representatives from the OSCE, Georgian Government, and the Russians and de facto South Ossetian authorities.
This follows a number of incidents, the most recent one, involving a South Ossetian resident Mr Genady Pliev, who was detained by the Georgian authorities on 4 January. The EUMM interviewed Mr Pliev yesterday, and discussed his case with the South Ossetian de facto authorities at meetings in Ergneti and then Tskhinvali. EUMM also visited the spot where Tskhinvali representatives alleged the detention took place, talking to his family and neighbours. Ambassador Haber has commented:
Steve Bird + 995 91 22 7055
Virginia Antonini + 995 91 22 70 24