OSCE Chairman's Personal Representative for Georgia advocates reopening dialogue between Georgia and South Ossetia

LJUBLJANA, 13 October 2005 - "The Georgian and South Ossetian sides must take a step towards reopening the dialogue in order to calm down existing tensions and proceed with demilitarization", said Mircea Geoana, the Personal Representative for Georgia of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, during his visit to Georgia last week

Geoana, who was also Chairman-in-Office of the Organization in 2001 and now serves as a Romanian Senator, underlined the importance for both sides to work constructively on a number of practical issues.

"The OSCE is prepared to work and deliver on a variety of practical issues on the ground, such as demilitarization of the zone of conflict, the Needs Assessment Study put forward by the OSCE Mission to Georgia, as well as the OSCE-proposed joint policing initiative for the zone of conflict."

He advised progress should ideally be achieved before the OSCE Ministerial Council in Ljubljana: "This would demonstrate the constructive approach of both sides and constitute a good basis for moving to the more complicated issues of the political process."

The Personal Representative also called on the South Ossetian side to co-operate constructively with Tbilisi on proposed peace plans.

The visit took place last week at a time when the relations between the Georgian and South Ossetian parties were particularly strained, due to the shelling of civilian houses in Tskhinvali, South Ossetia, on 20 September.