Occupation Line Shifting Was Discussed at the Ergneti Meeting in the Frame of Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism

Lado Bitchashvili, Shida Kartli

On March 15, at the 64th round of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism meetings in Ergneti village, the parties spoke about shifting of the occupation line in Jariasheni village.

“We discussed renewed illegal border marking activities in Jariasheni village, Gori municipality during the meeting. It hinders establishment of peace and stability in the region. Due to the urgency of the issue, this problem will be discussed at the next round of Geneva International Talks,” deputy head of the Analytic Department of the State Security Service Davit Kobakhidze said.

Representative of the de-facto authority of South Ossetia Davit Sanakoev said they started building of the road via Jariasheni village because of frequent fires in the forest. 

“In future this road will be used as fire-prevention zone because in the past years several incidents happened there. Special vehicles will be moving along this road to timely put out fires. But I warn locals that it is border line and they cannot cross it,” Davit Sanakoev said after the meeting.

Jariasheni residents say when pipes of the natural air system were installed in the village, the heavy technique damaged their fruit-yards; afterwards the occupation line was shifted with several meters inside the Georgian government controlled territory. 

“I am 70 and have never seen fire here. They will use this road for ordinary transport and will link occupied villages with each other; Russian soldiers told us about it, who worked here,” local Guram Tatishvili said.

During the Ergneti meeting, officials of the Government of Georgia asked representatives of South Ossetia’s de-facto authority for the investigation into illegal break into the house of the internally displaced person in the occupied Akhalgori. Davit Kobakhidze said the Ossetian party promised they would find out this case for the next meeting.

In the second part of the meeting, the parties discussed the issue of irrigation system. They agreed to clean the channel in near future. As a result, residents of both Georgian Government’s controlled territory and occupied villages will use the water of the irrigation system.