Disagreements over who should chair meetings in frames of incident prevention mechanisms is one of the reasons of Tskhinvali’s refusal to participate in these talks, Boris Chochiev, the breakaway South Ossetia’s chief negotiator, said.

Meetings, facilitated by OSCE and EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia, in frames of incident prevention mechanism, agreed during the Geneva talks in February, were held twice with participation of Georgian, South Ossetia sides and Russian military commanders on the ground.

“We have failed to agree on those meetings who will chair future meetings,” Chochiev, whose formal position is a special envoy for post-conflict resolution issues, said in remarks posted on the breakaway region’s official website on July 8.

“We have offered two options: either the representatives of Russia and EU should be chairs of these meeting, as they have signed Medvedev-Sarkozy agreement, or each participating side based on rotation principle. None of these proposals were accepted,” Chochiev said. “During the sixth round of Geneva discussions, we have offered a third option: the meetings to be chaired alternately by the Georgian and South Ossetian sides.”
 
He said that the Georgian side was strongly against of these proposals and was instead insisting on EU Monitoring Mission’s chairmanship.

“We have decided to reject participation in these meetings unless this issue is resolved,” Chochiev said.

He also said that Tskhinvali was insisting on receiving information on whereabouts of three South Ossetians, who go missing since the August war. Tskhinvali has alleged that three persons were detained by the Georgian side, but Tbilisi denies.

The first meeting in frames of incident prevention mechanism between Georgian and Abkhaz sides with participation of the Russian military command on the ground is scheduled to take place in Gali on July 17.