The 84th IPRM meeting takes place in Ergneti

ERGNETI, 24 January 2018 - The 84th meeting under the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) was held today in Ergneti. The meeting was conducted in an open and positive atmosphere.

Erik Høeg, Head of the European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM), and Ambassador Günther Bächler, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South Caucasus, co-facilitated the proceedings.

Erik Høeg opened the meeting and provided a short general summary of events since the last meeting on the 19 December 2017. The security situation along the administrative boundary line (ABL) was assessed as relatively calm. The co-facilitators expressed their appreciation with the continued and active use of the Hotline to address any security related matters on the ground.

The issue of transparency in the investigation case of Mr. Basharuli, was once again debated.

Participants expressed concern over any use of firearms in the vicinity of the ABL, and underlined the importance of activating the Hotline in instances where civilians are observed carrying firearms close to the ABL.

The impact of ‘borderization’, and particularly the issue of farming and collection of firewood close to the ABL, was deliberated. The co- facilitators encouraged all participants to continue the discussion underlining the humanitarian dimension of the issue.

The co-facilitators expressed their gratitude for the overall constructive approach to the EUMM proposal to enlarge the list of activities conducted by military/security actors near the ABL and which could be pre-announced via the Hotline. Coupled with this, Mr. Høeg underlined, once again, the importance of sharing information on military exercises in a timely fashion

The next IPRM meeting will take place on 1 March 2018.