Hammarberg goes to South Ossetia to release Ossetians detained in Georgia

In February, Thomas Hammarberg, Supreme Commissioner of the Council of Europe on Human Rights, will visit South Ossetia. One of the main topics will be debates on release of the Ossetians, considered as missing or detained by the Georgian party.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that according to the Ossetian party 39 citizens of South Ossetia are still kept in Georgian prisons. Seven persons are considered to be missing.

As reported by the IA "Res", the details of Mr Hammarberg's visit to South Ossetia were agreed today at the meeting of Boris Chochiev, plenipotentiary of South-Ossetian President on post-conflict settlement, with Jille Hansul, representative of the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Tskhinvali.

Should the Georgian party fail to release the detained citizens of South Ossetia or to provide information to this end, Mr Hammarberg promised to invite international independent lawyers to South Ossetia and Georgia. " According to Mr Hammarberg, they should deal with investigating the cases of missing people and a number of other cases," said Mr Chochiev.