HIGHLIGHTS OF PRESS CONFERENCE BY THREE CO-CHAIRS
OF GENEVA INTERNATIONAL DISCUSSIONS

Pierre Morel, Special Representative of the European Union for the crisis in Georgia, Johan Verbeke, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia, and Charalampos Christopoulos, Special Envoy of the Chairman-in-Office at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) spoke to journalists after the conclusion of the fifth round of international discussions on Georgia, which took place in Geneva on 18 and 19 May 2009.

Mr. Morel, reading out the official communiqué that was agreed by all three co-chairs, gave a synthesis of the work that had been achieved in the last two days.

The participants to the discussions had just finished their fifth round of discussion, noted Mr. Morel, despite initial difficulties. All participants had met again, as last time, in two parallel working groups to discuss the security and stability in the region and humanitarian questions.

The discussions had taken place in a constructive atmosphere. All participants had engaged themselves to set up the joint incidents’ prevention and settlement mechanisms, as had been agreed during the Geneva IV discussions. That mechanism constituted the best way to address rapidly and adequately any security incidents on the ground and were an important step to promote and strengthen stability, Mr. Morel said.

Participants had also discussed a wide variety of security questions, particularly the non-use of force and modalities of international security regimes. Humanitarian questions had also been discussed, Mr. Morel added.

In Working Group two, five concept papers had been presented. Those covered issues linked to the socio-economic rehabilitation programmes; property rights and housing; facilitation of returns; legal status of internally displaced persons and other displaced persons; and the restoration of water supplies. A constructive exchange of views had taken place on the substance of those documents, as well as their human rights related aspect, Mr. Morel said. The participants had also agreed to request the co-Chairs to study the texts and to get written comments by them one week before the next sessions.

Mr. Morel said participants had further agreed to designate experts for a joint needs assessment mission. An OSCE Independent Expert had also been nominated to conduct an assessment of the necessary repair work needed to ensure the continuity of water supplies. Participants had also expressed the will to tackle all remaining challenges with regard to gas supplies. Finally all participants had agreed to meet again on 1 July 2009 in Geneva.

Adding some personal comments, Mr. Morel said that the process was “back on the right track”, after having encountered a few difficulties. The process was now in full swing and had consolidated its working methods today. The discussions had progressed.

Mr. Morel believed that this time’s work showed that one had to take seriously the discussions as they were now bearing fruit. It was thus important that all parties remained fully engaged in the process.

Mr. Verbeke, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia, shared his impressions on how the work had gone over the last two days. He noted that, in the context of difficult negotiations, often issues of form were as important as those of substance.

The current round of discussions had been the most substantive ones since the discussions had started eight months ago, he noted, with participants now more and more committed to substantive issues linked to security questions.

Turning to the results of the current discussions, Mr. Verbeke highlighted the fact that the participants had agreed to meet again on 1 July 2009. This showed that the process was ongoing. He also noted that, up until now, the time between each Geneva discussions had increased each time. This trend had been reversed now, as the next discussions would take place in five weeks’ time.

On the incident prevention mechanism, Mr. Verberke said that it might be considered a minor improvement to have parties re-agreeing on an engagement. Since the mechanism had been agreed upon, it had not been able to meet on Abkhazia and only once on South Ossetia. Today, the co-Chairs had called both concerned parties to formally say if the commitments they had made three months ago were still valid and both parties had done so. At the end of the discussion they had also reached an agreement to have the South Ossetian mechanism meet soon.

Also Mr. Verberke highlighted the fact that for the first time working group one had agreed that the co-Chairs prepare working document for the next round of discussions. The documents would deal with extremely sensitive issues, such as the non-use of force. The co-Chairs would thus prepare a document reflecting the de facto and de jure situation on this matter.

Other key points discussed today had been the security regime and the need for contact between the parties, said Mr. Verberke. On the security regime, the co-Chairs had developed elements that could help the parties to resolve pending issues so that next time they could get a more coherent concept of what a possible security regime might mean.

On the question of trying to establish a minimal relationship between the parties, Mr. Verberke said that there had been an agreement to do so, but not necessarily on the extent, scope and modalities for doing that. The issue had been “floated” and there had been receptiveness on the part of the parties to continue to discuss the question

Mr. Christopoulos, on behalf of the OSCE, added his clear support to the communiqué that had been read out by Mr. Morel and thanked all participants for their constructive approach.

No one would ever suggest that the discussions had been easy, Mr. Christopoulos said, as emotions were still raw and positions, in some cases, wide apart. But the discussions were crucial for the security and stability of Georgia, the Caucasus and the wider region and they, as co-Chairs would continue to try to help the participants to find common ground.

A key element of this fifth round of discussion had been that participants had begun to discuss concrete security arrangements, Mr. Christopoulos said. They were also moving forward on humanitarian questions, including water, where the OCSE was playing a specific role. He was happy that the participants had agreed on a joint needs assessment team that would be led by an international expert, under the auspices of the OSCE, on the repair needs t guarantee water supplies.

Secondly, the working level mechanisms to tackle security related incidents had started; that had been a clear outcome of Geneva IV. All participants had recommitted themselves again during this round to implement those mechanisms. But obviously much remained to be done to overcome the mistrust between sides and to ensure that the mechanisms truly worked as a way to reduce tensions. The OSCE’s core business was to further and maintain security and stability in Europe and it thus was still fully committed to play its part in the Geneva Discussions as one of the three co-chairs and to play its part in the joint incident prevention mechanisms.