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“If They Are Not Alive, Please Give Us At Least Their Bodies” – Tskhinvali Urges European Commissionaire for Help

May 7, 2010
Mari Otarashvili

“We have all documents to prove that the missing people were detained by Georgian law enforcement bodies. Currently, they are either in isolation on Georgian territory, or they are already dead which will be most tragic for us. In his case, we request their bodies. We will request everybody to clarify the fate of our missing citizens once and for ever. The Red Cross Committee promised to help us. I think, the Committee, although it is neutral organization, cannot openly express their position; but they know that we are write and they even support us,” said the representative of the de-facto president of South Ossetia in the regulation of the post-conflict situation Merab Chigoev.

Human Rights Commissionaire of the Council of Europe Thomas Hammarberg visited Tskhinvali to resolve the problem of hostages several days ago.

“During his visit, Hammarberg heard the cases of the 7 missing citizens of South Ossetia,” said the representative of the de-facto president in the human rights issues Davit Sanakoev. Ossetian side claims that 7 residents of SO, among them one is under-age person, were kidnapped by Georgian law enforcement officers after the armed conflict in August of 2008.

“The government of Georgia thinks that those people are missing though we have video-recording how the Georgian law enforcement officers are beating the hostages. They were kidnapped during the war in August of 2008; several of them were kidnapped after the war,” said Davit Sanakoev.

The head of the analytic department of the ministry of internal affairs of Georgia Shota Utiashvili denied the information. He said the law enforcement bodies do not have information about the people named by the Ossetian side. Utiashvili said that at the meeting organized by the Red Cross International Committee, they decided to set up a joint committee of the representatives of the Red Cross Committee, Georgian, Ossetian and Russian parties to find the missing people. The third meeting was organized on April 29 in the village of Knolevi which borders with Tskhinvali region. The parties met in February and March in Switzerland. As a result of the meetings, the list of 47 missing people was drawn up.

The meeting in Knolevi was held before Hammarberg arrived in Tskhinvali. The representatives of Georgia, South Ossetia and Russia as well as Red Cross Committee attended the meeting. They discussed the problem of missing people.

The human rights commissionaire Thomas Hammarberg said Tskhinvali is ready to release three more Georgian prisoners. Hammarberg stated about it after his meeting with the Georgian state minister for reintegration Temur Iakobashvili.

“Georgian side released 6 people several days ago. After that, during my visit in Tskhinvali three detainees were set free by Ossetian side and they promised to release three more Georgians. I am not involved in this process. I am entitled to monitor the human rights situation in the conflict regions,” said Hammarberg and added that 8 Georgian detainees are still in Tskhinvali.

The Human Rights Commissionaire Thomas Hammarberg arrived in Tbilisi on May 1. Next day, he met the representatives of South Ossetia. At that meeting, they agreed to release Georgian detainees – Levan Bigamishvili, Jamlet Jamrishvili and Genadi Tsiklauri.

Hammarberg also reported that at the moment three more people are still in Tskhinvali. He was promised to release the three people within a week.

“The officials of the South Ossetia promised us to set the remaining three Georgian detainees in a week,” said Hammarberg.

He clarified that the negotiations are going on about the other 8 Georgian hostages.  The abovementioned 6 citizens (three of them are already free and another three will be free soon) were detained in August of 2009 for illegal crossing of the border in the village of Lamiskana.

Ossetian side claims that Hammarberg’s last visit did not end with the release of any Ossetian hostage. Neither the problem of the missing people was clarified.

“Hammarberg left Tskinvali without clarifying anything about the hostages, prisoners and missing people. We will see what will happen next time,” said MP of the de-facto parliament of South Ossetia Vladimer Gabaraev.

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