Geneva Co-Chairs visit Tskhinvali

The Co-Chairs of the Geneva talks and representatives of the de facto South Ossetian Government have met in Tskhinvali to discuss the agenda of the next round of negotiations. The drafting of an agreement on the non-use of force, humanitarian problems and the issue of missing people will be discussed at the 8th round of Geneva talks, the de facto South Ossetian news agency cominf.org has reported.

Boris Chochiev, representative of the de facto South Ossetian President on Post-conflict Regulation, said the negotiations in Geneva will be “tough”. “We do not agree with many of the points in the Tagliavini Commission report; however we heard the main thing - Georgia started the war. Many military experts and political leaders in Georgia have said the same thing lately. We expect to hear the official position of the European Union on the Tagliavini report,” Chochiev said at the meeting.

Charalampos Christopoulos, one of the Co-Chairs of the talks representing the OSCE, said that the sides should do everything to prevent a repeat of the tragedy of August 2008. “It is very important to realise how it happened, to analyse the steps that led to the conflict. For us it is very important to restore all mechanisms of trust, documents and processes which would give us guarantees that the tragedy will not be repeated. This is the aim of Geneva discussions,” cominf.org quoted him as saying.

According to the de facto South Ossetian news agency the Co-Chairs of the Geneva talks gave the de facto authorities a draft of a possible non-use of force agreement. “South Ossetia is not satisfied with this. We will discuss this issue on November 11, considering the opinion of all sides. We will present our own proposals by October 28,” Chochiev told journalists after the meeting.