EU Monitors Visit Tskhinvali over Detained S.Ossetian Man

During their first ever visit to Tskhinvali on January 5 monitors from EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM) met with representatives of the breakaway region’s authorities and Russian military to discuss arrest of a South Ossetian man by the Georgian police on January 4.

The Georgian Interior Ministry said that the police detained Genadi Pliev, who was described as “a member of [South] Ossetian illegal gang”, in Nikozi, the village close to the breakaway region’s administrative border. It said that Pliev was armed with a firearm and hand-grenades.

But the breakaway region’s authorities said that Pliev, who they said was “an employee of the state guard service”, was “kidnapped” by the Georgian police from Tskhinvali outskirts, “about 400-500 meters deeper from the South Ossetian state border.”

EU monitors were shown the spot where, according to the South Ossetian side, Pliev was arrested by the Georgian police.

“For the time being we have no precise conclusion” about the incident, EUMM spokesperson told Civil.Ge on January 6.

She said that EU monitors also met with the arrested man, as well as with his relatives in Tskhinvali. Some reports from the South Ossetian sources said that Pliev could have been wounded during the arrest, but EU monitors did not confirm that and said Pliev was “relatively in good condition.”

Merab Chigoev, deputy envoy of the South Ossetian leader for post-conflict resolution issues, said that Tskhinvali “invited EU monitors on the South Ossetian territory as an exception case” to allow them to look into the circumstances of this particular incident.

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