Salome Modebadze
Category: IDP Georgia 
2015-01-22
51st Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) meeting took place in Ergneti on January 20th.
The meetings are usually held in a special camp a couple of meters away from the administrative boundary line (ABL). This camp unites representatives of Georgian, Ossetian and Russian parties and international monitors to discuss the needs and problems local population is facing nowadays. There is de-facto South Ossetian territory in a few steps away from the camp.
In the interests of supporting peace, stability and security, and with due attention to the provisions of the six-point agreement of 12 August, and subsequent implementing measures of 8 September, joint mechanisms with the relevant participants are required in order to prevent and, where necessary, respond to incidents that could cause suffering to civilian populations and/or risk deterioration of the situation.
This is why from April 23, 2009 till today agenda of IPRM meetings unites all the issues that the monitors obtain from the local population.
Moreover, information about the situation along the ABL also gathers through the special hotline.
Installation of barbed-wire fences by the Russian forces, the cases of detainees and missing persons, movement of cattle across the ABL, rehabilitation of water pipes as well as other topics related to the livelihood of local communities are always on the agenda.
Representatives of State Ministry of Georgia for Reconciliation and Civic Equality and Ministry of Internal Affairs personally take parts in the meetings under IPRM in Ergneti.
51st IPRM meeting lasted for more than five hours. According to the representative of MIA’s Analytical Department, Kakha Kemoklidze, the Georgian side raised the issue of transferring the body of a Georgian man Davit Basharuli to his family. However, according to the de-facto South Ossetian authorities, examination of the corpse is underway and will supposedly last for around two or three weeks.
New Head of the European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM) Kestutis Jankauskas said a variety of such issues were put on the agenda, which mean a lot for the daily lives of the local population. He also welcomed the fact that “discussions and changes of views took place in a constructive and positive manner”. As Jankauskas said the mission will continue doing its best for ensuring stability and safety in the region. Discussions over the needs of people living along the ABL remains number one issue on the IPRM agenda.
Next IPRM meeting will be held in Ergneti on February 27. But before that the issues concerning the local population will accumulate via the hotline.
IPRM meetings define the fate of certain people. This is why it is so important to deliver their messages to the relevant addressees.
Meetings similar to Ergneti used to take place in Gali, Abkhazia before 2012 as well. This issue still remains on the agenda, however, hardly anything can be achieved without interest and engagement of the local population.
As the former Head of EUMM Toivo Klaar said at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (GFSIS) earlier in December, the wave of information about the needs and problems of the local population the monitors gain on the ground along the ABL would remain only as information without the IPRM meetings regularly held in Ergneti. The meetings together with the hotline ensure constant connection among the Georgian officials, Russian border-guards, international missions and de-facto governments. All the parties appreciate the fact that a lot of issues are being solved through the hotline.
There are certain issues that are hard to be solved between the previous and next IPRM meetings, however, as Klaar said because of the mission’s continuous pretense at ABL’s people on the both side have confidence that they are protected, that the mission “helps reduce tensions and helps channel disagreements in a more constructive avenues”, which is a crucial contribution to ensuring stability in the region.
Source: GINSC
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