Georgia presents data on human rights violations in Abkhazia and South Ossetia to Geneva consultations

The members of the Georgian delegation at the Geneva consultations have reported about human rights violations in the occupied territories, including the right to receive education in one's native language, the freedom from harassments and detentions, and the freedom of movement, says the statement the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the 21st round of discussions was held on October 10-11. The delegation of South Ossetia, which participated in the discussions, expressed their concern about the intrusive presence of Georgian policemen along the entire length of the border.

At the sitting of the working group, the Georgian delegation also expressed their concern over the obstacles on the part of the official Sukhumi related to the mechanism for preventing and responding to incidents.

"Andrzej Tyszkiewicz, the head of the EU observation mission, is still unable to enter the occupied territory of Abkhazia," the Georgian MFA stressed on October 13.

In the course of the 21st round of Geneva consultationsб the parties began discussing the document on non-use of force.

"We have agreed to start working on a joint document and hope that Russia will undertake not to use force," Sergi Kapanadze, Deputy Foreign Minister, said to Georgian media at a press conference on October 11.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent received explanations from Paata Zakareishvili, a candidate for the post of the Minister for Conflict Settlement and a member of the "Georgian Dream", that a draft document was prepared by the co-chairs - the EU, UN, OSCE and the USA.

Running Geneva discussions to be entrusted to new government of Georgia

Mr Zakareishvili has explained that the representatives of the new government, which is being formed by the "Georgian Dream", were present at the 21st round only as observers.

According to his story, the format of the Geneva discussions will in future allow the parties to work closer, as the new Georgian government intends to change approaches on some issues.

In particular, earlier Zakareishvili had offered to consider Abkhazia and South Ossetia as parties in the conflict. "The Georgia's dialogue will be resumed with the Abkhazian and South-Ossetian parties. Attempts will be made to minimize the Russia's factor, since Russia had occupied Georgian territories; and it can't be a mediator," said the candidate for the post of the minister.

Another novelty offered by him refers mitigation of the law about the occupied territories of Georgia, which assumes imprisonment for entry into Abkhazia and South Ossetia from Russia.

Abkhazian party: no grounds for optimism so far

The 21st round of Geneva discussions became a sort of a transition, said Vyacheslav Chirikba, Foreign Minister and the head of the Abkhazian delegation.

He said that the Abkhaz party had proposed to move from the "format of experts" of the discussion to the "format of delegations".

Mr Chirikba has noted that it will be necessary to se whether the dialogue with the Georgian party will get simpler after the change of government. "It was impossible to deal with the old team from Georgia; let's look at the new team," he said.

In general, summing up the 21st round of discussions, Vyacheslav Chirikba said that "there are no grounds for optimism."

Karasin: discussants agreed to accelerate preparation of the document on non-use of force

Grigory Karasin, Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia, said that the participants of the discussions had agreed to accelerate the development of the statement on non-use of force. He explained that the work was continued on the Russian version, which was rejected by Tbilisi in March.

"The participants of the discussions came to the conclusion that we can speed up the work on this statement, moving towards its adoption at the next round in December," Mr Karasin said.

Touching on the crisis around the mechanism for preventing and responding to incidents (MPRI) on the Georgian-Abkhazian border, Grigory Karasin said that this issue was raised, but it proved impossible to find a way out this time.

On the positive side, he mentioned the "operatively working communication 'hot line', in particular, among the EU observers and Russian border guards, which helps in settling incidents," the ITAR-TASS reports.

The next 22nd round of Geneva discussions is scheduled for December 12, the radio "Echo of the Caucasus" reports.