Five-sided meeting on incident prevention in Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone to be held

GEORGIA

The next five-sided meeting on incident prevention will be held in the village of Ergneti in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone on September 3. The meeting is scheduled for 11 a.m., the head of the Analytical Department of the Georgian Interior Ministry, Shota Utiashvili, said.

It is being held in the Geneva negotiations format and aims to develop mechanisms to prevent incidents in the conflict zone. Delegations from Georgia, Russia, unrecognized South Ossetia, the EU and the UN are attending. 

During the meeting in Ergneti, the Ossetian delegation, headed by Merab Chigoyev, intends to raise the question of releasing two Ossetians imprisoned in Georgian prisons for various crimes.

The Georgian side also intends to raise the question of the security of the Georgian population, which remain in the conflict zone, and the liberation of people arrested for breaching the border between Georgia and unrecognized South Ossetia.

The most recent such case took place on September 1, when six Georgians were detained.