Combined Control Commission seeks release of hostages

An extraordinary meeting of the Combined Control Commission for the Resolution of the Georgian-Osetian Conflict is being held in Tskhinvali, the capital of South Osetia. The meeting was arranged because the problem with hostages taken from both sides was to be settled immediately. The Osetian side is holding one hostage now. He is chief of Georgia's Eredvi village police Mr Chalauri. The Georgian side is holding Aleksandr Pukhayev, detained by law enforcers on January 19, and another four hostages from South Osetia. The sides have expressed a unanimous wish to take all necessary steps to release the hostages immediately.

The Georgian side suggested that investigation into the charges brought by Osetian law enforcement agencies against Chalauri as well as those people who beat South Osetian deputy minister for special affairs Gassiyev should not be conducted. Representatives of the Osetian side, in particular members of the Combined Control Commission Elbakiyev, Pliyev and others, suppose that the Georgian side likely aims at showing a good will gesture by the time that Georgian president Saakashvili addresses the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg on January 26 offering South Osetia new political status within Georgia.