S. Ossetia denies return of OSCE monitoring mission

The so called South Ossetian Foreign Ministry has denied reports in Vzgliad newspaper, in which Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Committee on Democracy, Human Rights, and Humanitarian Affairs, Matteo Mekach, said that his organization “intends to restore its monitoring mission in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone".

As reported on May 15, after a four-year pause, the OSCE mission will resume in July. This information was announced by Mekachi during his visit to Ergneti, a Georgian village. According to Maestro TV, while there he visited Georgian and Russian checkpoints.

“I am here due to the government’s invitation. I have met many people. I understand their condition and the OSCE will do everything to protect human rights. Recently, the Parliamentary Assembly discussed the issue of launching an OSCE office here, which will be started supposedly in July,” Mekachi said.

“We have not heard of such intentions from the OSCE, as no application and no negotiations with South Ossetian authorities are being held,” a statement from the so called South Ossetian Foreign Ministry read. It also questioned where Mekachi would place the OSCE mission, RES news agency reports.

“As for relations between the Republic of South Ossetia and the OSCE, after the August 2008 war the organization could no longer continue its activity with the same mandate, and there is no new mandate. Despite the fact that there were serious complaints about the activity and positions of the OSCE mission, South Ossetia has repeatedly appealed to the leadership of the OSCE with a proposal to discuss further relations, taking into account the existing realities after the 2008 war, and recognition of the Republic of South Ossetia, however, no positive response from the OSCE side was received,” the statement continued.

Head of the so called South Ossetian Presidential Administration, Boris Chochiev, asserted that “Such nonsense is spread by the Georgian media. Currently, more than a year later, no negotiations about this issue are taking place. There were negotiations in 2009, 2010, 2011 raised by the OSCE chair states, however, we did not accept their proposal, and neither did they accept our conditions".