Reconciliation Minister, EUMM Head discuss situation in Russian-occupied territories

The humanitarian and human rights situation in the Russian-occupied regions of Georgia were discussed on Tuesday in a meeting between Tea Akhvlediani, the Georgian State Minister for Reconciliation and Civil Equality and Dimitrios Karabalis, the new Head of the European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia.

Akhvlediani congratulated the Greek diplomat on his appointment to the position and emphasised the role of the EUMM as the only international monitoring mission present on the ground in Georgia for maintaining local security and stability.

The Minister provided the EUMM Head with a “detailed information” on the policy of reconciliation and engagement, including A Step To a Better Future, a peace initiative to improve the socio-economic conditions of the populations in the occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia), the Office of the State Minister of Georgia for Reconciliation and Civic Equality said.

The officials highlighted illegal detentions of Georgian citizens along the line separating the occupied regions from the rest of the country, and setting up of barbed wires and other artificial barriers along the line by occupation forces.

They also stressed the importance of “efficient conduct” of meetings of the Geneva International Discussions and the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism - platforms facilitating discussions between the Georgian Government and de-facto authorities in the regions.

The Head of the EUMM said the Georgian side's efforts in the process of peaceful conflict resolution through its engagement and reconciliation strategy was of “great importance”, and assured the State Minister of his “complete assistance”.