TSKHINVALI. Dec 10 (Interfax) - A South Ossetian delegation at the 22nd round of international discussions on security in the South Caucasus in Geneva on December 11-12 will again bring up the issue of concluding an agreement on the non-use of force, Murat Dzhioyev, the head of the South Ossetian delegation and the presidential envoy for post-conflict settlement, told Interfax on Friday.
Security still remains the top priority for South Ossetia, Dzhioyev said. "Our delegation proposed a draft agreement on the non-use of force between Georgia and South Ossetia back in June 2009. Similar drafts were proposed by the Abkhaz delegation and international mediators. But, unfortunately, an unconstructive position of our counter-partners has so far prevented us from reaching a consensus," Dzhioyev said.
Therefore, South Ossetia and Georgia made unilateral statements on the non-use of force in November and December 2010 at Russia's proposal, Dzhioyev said. "These proposals have been registered with the UN. But we have always stressed that this is only an interim step on the way toward our principal goal - the signing of a legally binding document on the non-use of force, which should be signed by South Ossetia and Georgia and which should be backed by international guarantees. We have said repeatedly that South Ossetia views Russia as such a guarantor, with which we have established diplomatic relations. International organizations involved in the Geneva process could guarantee the observance of these agreements," he said.
This process is going very slowly and involves a lot of difficulties, and therefore Russia proposed at the 19th round of the Geneva debates that all of their participants sign a statement pledging their commitment to non-use of force. "We proposed out draft immediately, and we recently confirmed in writing once again that we are committed to the first draft, because the expert work that was done during the 21st round showed that experts are so far unable to come to a common opinion. And we will insist on passing the first draft," Dzhioyev said.
In addition, the participants in the 22nd round of the discussion will also address the situation in the region following the previous meeting, Dzhioyev said. The members of the South Ossetian delegation will raise the issue of the fate of South Ossetian citizens who have gone missing and those being held in prisons in Georgia.