Most of the violations of the state border of South Ossetia over the past period are committed by ordinary citizens, often in a state of alcoholic intoxication. This was reported to journalists by Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of President of the Republic of South Ossetia for Post-Conflict Settlement, the head of the South Ossetian delegation Egor Kochiev following the 125th meeting within the framework of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) format.
“Over the past period, there have been quite a lot of violations by ordinary citizens, most often these citizens are in a state of intoxication,” Kochiev has noted.
According to him, criminal cases against some of them are initiated in cases of repeated violations or under aggravating circumstances, such as smuggling or the presence of prohibited drugs.
"Most of the citizens detained by border guards, as a rule, simply got lost, Kochiev has specified. - In such cases, they are questioned, their identity is established and they are expelled from South Ossetia to the territory of the neighboring state, that is, to where they came from," the head of the delegation has clarified.
Egor Kochiev has specified that although crossing the border while intoxicated is considered the aggravating circumstance, such cases are treated with understanding if it is confirmed that the reason was a religious celebration or family event.
"If this is indeed confirmed, then these persons are expelled without penalties," he has emphasized.
As for violations by official structures, Kochiev reported one case of border violation by representatives of the Georgian police.
"This incident was raised during the discussions," Kochiev said.
The South Ossetian party considers the absence of violations by the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) to be a particularly positive moment.
"I can say that during the period since the last meeting there have been no violations of the state border by representatives of the EU Monitoring Mission," Kochiev said.
He has reminded that this issue was also raised at the Geneva Discussions round held in March.
"Since then, we have had no violations by the EU Monitoring Mission patrol - this is quite a positive moment. At the same time, the mission patrols continue their work, but they no longer enter the territory of South Ossetia," Yegor Kochiev has concluded.
