On 19 September 2017, the 49th meeting of the joint Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) was held in Gali town under the chairmanship of the United Nations with the participation of Georgian, Russian, Abkhaz and EUMM (European Union Monitoring Mission) representatives. The meeting was businesslike and rather constructive.
The overall security situation on the ground since the previous IPRM meeting was assessed as calm and stable.
The participants followed up on the 19 May 2016 killing case of a Georgian civilian man at one of the former crossing points. They exchanged information on previous and recent detentions of local residents related to alleged “illegal crossings”. An appeal was reiterated to handle such cases from a humanitarian and administrative angle, rather than as a criminal offence. The participants also followed up on the issues related to crossings by schoolchildren to access education in the language of their choice.
The participants were called upon to give due attention to prevention of incidents and to closely cooperate in this respect, including by provision of an advance notice of sensitive activities and the active use of hotline, which has proven its effectiveness.
Furthermore, the participants continued to take the opportunity in the margins of the meeting to conduct intensive bilateral discussions on issues of their interest and confidence building.
The participants agreed to hold the next meeting on 25 October 2017.