EUMM says regrettably ‘impossible to complete’ IPRM discussions

The European Union Monitoring mission (EUMM) said today’s Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) meeting “was marked by a series of intense exchanges on the topic of Tsnelisi between participants”. 

However, "regrettably it was impossible to complete  discussions on all agenda points as the meeting was disrupted”.

Today's IPRM meeting has been disrupted as the Russian and Ossetian participants left in protest after the Georgian officials refused to dismantle the police checkpoint on the Georgia-controlled territory in the village of Chorchara in Khashuri Municipality, close to the occupied village of Tsnelisi.

EUMM said, the Head of the mission Erik Høeg “provided an overview of events” since the last IPRM meeting on July 18. 

Høeg considers that the recent developments along the occupation line “had negatively impacted the overall security situation, in particular relating to the recent, highly-concerning occurrences in the Gugutiantkari and Tsnelisi areas”.

Very difficult IPRM meeting in Ergneti today, co-facilitated by #EUMM. Meeting disrupted due to disagreements on how to respond to developments in area of Tsnelisi at South Ossetian ABL See joint press release of the 95th meeting here: https://t.co/bgmvZkN2zJ pic.twitter.com/lILuJEBK7e

— Erik Hoeg (@erik_hoeg) August 29, 2019

The European Union Special Representative for the South Caucasus Toivo Klaar also shared his concerns over the developments along the ABL. 

Very concerned about developments around Tsnelisi village and Chorchana forest. Important that today’s #IPRM is made full use of.

— Toivo Klaar (@ToivoKlaar) August 29, 2019

The co-facilitators of IPRM emphasised the importance of continuing dialogue in lowering of tensions and reminded participants to focus on the challenges of the conflict-affected population, EUMM reported. 

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They spoke of a number of instances where the EUMM managed hotline was used effectively and stressed the need "to keep exchanging information through all available communication channels, especially providing early warning of activities with a view to reducing tensions”.