The Georgian Interior Ministry said on September 24 it hopes it will be possible to resume Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism meetings in Gali after new head of the EU Monitoring Mission takes office.

Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) was established in frames of Geneva discussions and represents a body to address on regular basis security issues on the ground. While on the South Ossetian direction IPRM meetings, involving officials from Tbilisi, Tskhinvali, as well as representatives of the Russian troops on the ground and EUMM, are held on the regular basis, such meetings on the Abkhaz direction in Gali are suspended for a year and a half already

Gali IPRM has not been held since March, 2012 after Sokhumi denounced then head of EUMM Andrzej Tyszkiewicz as “undesirable person on the Abkhaz territory”. Tyszkiewicz’s two-year tenure came to an end this summer and he was replaced by Toivo Klaar, who was in charge of coordination of human resource policies at the EU’s diplomatic service.

The Georgian Interior Ministry, whose representatives are involved in IPRM meetings, said that this is “an effective mechanism” of addressing concerns on the ground.

“The Ministry of Internal Affairs is actively monitoring Gali district and occupied region of Abkhazia and condemns illegal actions from the side of Russian occupational forces and Authorities of the de facto government of Abkhazia,” the Georgian Interior Ministry said.

The Interior Ministry released the statement in response to an address made by a group of Georgian civil society organizations, raising the issue of ethnic Georgians living in Gali in the wake of decision of the breakaway region’s authorities to review pasportization process.