19:00, 20 July 2010

Georgian-Ossetian forum asks help in addressing problems faced by population of Georgia and South Ossetia

Tent camp of refugees from South Ossetia in a Tbilisi suburb. Georgia, August 2008. Photo by Guram Muradov/http://civil.ge

The Dutch city of Leiden hosted a meeting of the participants of the Georgian-Ossetian Civil Forum, where an appeal was adopted to the parties of the Geneva Consultations, asking to help in solving the problems of the peaceful population of Georgia and South Ossetia.

In the opinion of the participants of the forum, now, almost two years after the war in South Ossetia, the Geneva Consultations make the only platform, where the authorities of the parties in conflict can meet. However, as the appeal says, after eleven rounds of consultations, none of the working groups has reached any positive results.

"The Mechanism for Preventing Incidents and Reacting, created for addressing current problems in place and - so far - the only achievement of the Consultations, is actually idling in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone," the participants of the Civil Forum are stating. "It becomes obvious that ordinary people with their everyday problems have become hostages of political interests."

The appeal passed on July 16 in the city of Leiden in the Netherlands was signed by 22 participants of the Civil Forum.