S.Ossetia Condemns CoE Official’s Meeting with ‘Alternative Leader’

Tskhinvali has denounced the decision of Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg to meet with Tbilisi-loyal self-imposed South Ossetian leader Dimitri Sanakoev, saying that contact between “authoritative international organizations” and “Tbilisi’s puppet authorities” only harm the peace process.

The Foreign Ministry of breakaway South Ossetia said in a statement on February 18 that the CoE Commissioner’s move was “a political step aimed at supporting the Georgian authorities’ attempts to give the illegal pro-Georgian ‘alternative government of South Ossetia’ a kind of official status.”

Tskhinvali has also warned that it will “refuse to cooperate with international, state or non-governmental organizations” that “blindly follow” Tbilisi’s attempts to increase the profile of its “puppet authorities.”

After holding talks with secessionist authorities in Tskhinvali, CoE Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg met with Dimitri Sanakoev in his headquarters in the Georgian village of Kurta in the conflict zone on February 17.

A day earlier, on February 16, the CoE Commissioner met with Boris Chochiev, deputy prime minister of breakaway South Ossetia, in Tskhinvali.

Hammarberg was in Georgia on February 12-18 to assess the human rights situation in the country, including in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as in the Adjara Autonomous Republic.

After holding talks with the authorities of breakaway Abkhazia in Sokhumi, he also met with head of the Tbilisi-backed Abkhaz government-in-exile Malkhaz Akishbaia on February 14 in the western Georgian town of Zugdidi, close to the administrative border with breakaway Abkhazia.

The meeting with Akishbaia was hailed by Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili as “an extremely important fact.”

CoE Commissioner Hammarberg stressed that his principle is to be in touch with everyone concerned with human rights.

“We are not in the business of recognizing or not recognizing; we need those who are relevant for the protection of human rights for the individuals. It is very logical that we met with those representatives [of the exiled government],” Hammarberg said.

Unlike CoE officials, diplomats from the European Union show a more cautious approach towards Tbilisi’s efforts to increase the profile of its loyal ‘authorities’ in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

A fact-finding team from the EU that visited Georgia and its breakaway regions in January, led by Hugues Mingarelli, the European Commission Director for Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia, refrained from meeting with representatives from the South Ossetian ‘alternative authorities’ and Abkhaz government-in-exile.

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