Press Statement by the U.S. Delegation
Geneva,
June 16, 2016
At the thirty-sixth round of the Geneva International Discussions on the conflict in Georgia June 14-15, the United States welcomed the resumption of the Gali Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM), which met for the first time in over four years on May 27 to address the fatal shooting of a Georgian civilian along the Abkhazia Administrative Boundary Line on May 19.
We called on the de facto authorities in Abkhazia to detain the perpetrator and bring him to justice as quickly as possible. We also urged the de facto authorities to share as much information as possible with Georgian authorities about the status of the investigation into the crime. We were encouraged by participants’ commitment to modalities that will facilitate regular meetings of the Gali IPRM. Moreover, we remain hopeful that by the end of the upcoming IPRM meeting on July 6, outstanding questions about the crime will be addressed.
We regret that participants did not engage on the return of internally displaced persons in Working Group Two. The United States believes that this issue needs to be discussed in Geneva in order to adequately address the humanitarian consequences of the conflict in Georgia.
Together with Georgia, Russia, and representatives of the de facto authorities of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the United States participates in the Geneva International Discussions, which are co-chaired by the EU, UN, and OSCE, and began in 2008 to address the consequences of the conflict in Georgia.
The United States fully supports Georgia’s territorial integrity, independence, and sovereignty within its internationally recognized borders.
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