TBILISI/TSKHINVAL. Oct 25 (Interfax) - The EU Monitoring Mission to Georgia (EUMM) has reported a minor incident that occurred on the border with South Ossetia and will be discussed at the pending technical meeting between representatives of Tbilisi and Tskhinval within the framework of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) on Friday.
"On the afternoon of 24 October, a patrol of the EU Monitoring Mission (EUMM) was briefly held by armed South Ossetian security actors," the EUMM said in a press release on Thursday.
According to the mission, the incident happened "while conducting a patrol in the Chorchana-Tsnelisi area."
"The hotline was activated from Tskhinval shortly after these developments," the EUMM said.
"The Mission is still looking into the details concerning the incident, which happened in an area understood to be on Tbilisi-Administered Territory in accordance with the traditional interpretation of the Administrative Boundary Line in that area," it said.
"Following recent security developments, EUMM has significantly increased its patrolling to support stability in the Chorchana-Tsnelisi area," the mission said.
"The EUMM is deeply concerned about cases in which armed security actors prevent EUMM Monitors from conducting their daily activities in accordance with the mandate," it said.
According to the EUMM, "the incident will be discussed during the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) technical meeting in Ergneti tomorrow [on October 25]."
For its part, the South Ossetian State Security Committee issued a statement on Thursday evening to tell its side of the story in which the EUMM patrol was detained.
"On October 24, South Ossetian border guards detained a group of members of the EU Monitoring Mission in the vicinity of the village of Uista in the Znaur district. In the course of the preventive conversation, the aforesaid trespassers of the state border claimed they had wandered into the South Ossetian territory by accident after 'they got disoriented and lost'. However, all of them were equipped with advanced navigation, observation, and radio systems, as well as with photo and video gadgets," the statement said.