Azernews.Az

By Sabina Idayatova

Another meeting on the Georgian-Ossetian conflict aimed to discuss ways of preventing and responding to incidents is being held in the Ergneti village in the conflict zone on Tuesday.

The Ossetian side intends to raise at the meeting the issue of South Ossetia residents serving sentences in Georgian prisons and the fate of the missing persons. It is also expected to bring to the forefront the issue of the Zardiantkari village, though the Georgian side has repeatedly stated that the issue has been settled, and the Georgian police post will not be moved.

Earlier, the Georgian Interior Ministry moved the police post a few hundred meters in the village close to South Ossetia, which caused tension among the local Ossetian population.

Tbilisi will raise the issue of observing human rights in the conflict zone and preventing arrests of people for violating the so-called "state border".

Representatives of the EU Monitoring Mission, the OSCE and Russia will also participate at the meeting.

South Ossetia is inhabited mostly by Ossetians who speak a language remotely related to Persian. Georgians account for less than one-third of the population.

Tensions in the region began to rise amid the rising nationalism among both Georgians and Ossetians, which evolved in 1989 and developed into a 1991-1992 South Ossetia War.

As a result of the war, about 1,000 people died and about 100,000 Ossetians fled the territory and Georgia proper, most heading into North Ossetia. A further 23,000 ethnic Georgians fled South Ossetia and settled in other parts of Georgia.

In August 2008, diplomatic tensions and clashes between Georgia and South Ossetia erupted into the 2008 South Ossetia war. The development also led to tensions between Russia and Georgia as Moscow crushed a Georgian assault to reassert control over the rebel Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions and later recognized the breakaway regions. In response, Tbilisi broke off diplomatic relations with Moscow and announced the two unrecognized republics as occupied territories in September 2008.

Georgia and the vast majority of other countries do not recognize South Ossetian independence and officially consider it as sovereign territory of the Georgian state.