90th Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism meeting takes place in Ergneti

ERGNETI, 18 December 2018 - The 90th Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) meeting took place today in Ergneti.

Erik Høeg, Head of the European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia, and Rudolf Michalka, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South Caucasus, co-facilitated the meeting.  

The co-facilitators welcomed the commitment of all participants to resume the IPRM meeting and encouraged a constructive and pragmatic approach.  

The security situation on the ground was assessed as relatively stable since the last IPRM meeting in mid-September. Høeg provided a brief overview of events and commended the very active use of the Mission-managed Hotline to address security issues on the ground. Participants discussed recent developments at the Administrative Boundary Line, including recent events in the Atotsi area. On the latter, the co-facilitators noted the efforts of security actors to maintain stability along the Administrative Boundary Line, while expressing concern over the impact of recent 'borderization' on the local population’s freedom of movement.

The high profile cases of Archil Tatunashvili and David Basharuli were also discussed.  Co-facilitators underlined the need for cooperation in these particular cases, as well as the need to avoid impunity.

Participants were invited to provide information via the Hotline on activities of security actors, including flights in the vicinity of the Administrative Boundary Line.

The meeting concluded in an open and constructive manner and participants agreed to conduct the next IPRM meeting on 8 February 2019.