Fourteen citizens of Georgia are still being held in illegal custody by the Russian occupation forces and the Tskhinvali proxy regime. These persons have been detained over the last year after the end of the large-scale hostilies of August 2008, mainly by the representatives of the Russian occupation forces. Currently they are held in Tskhinvali in complete violation of international law. Despite the efforts of the Georgian authorities and the European Union's Monitoring Mission in Georgia, their release has not yet been achieved.

We are particularly concerned by the detention of the teenagers by the Russian occupation forces. On November 5, 2009 Russian occupation forces detained four youngsters, two of whom - Victor Buchukuri and Levan Khmiadishvili still remain in custody. Moreover, in July 2009 occupants detained another minor - seventeen year old Giorgi Archvadze, who also remains in illegal custody. Despite Georgia's numerous efforts to contact the Russian occupation forces and the representatives of the proxy regimes via the "hot line" and the "Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism", the release of Giorgi Archvadze has not yet been achieved. It should be noted, that all three youngsters are the residents of the occupied territories or the adjacent areas. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia calls for the immediate release of these youngsters. International community and especially the European Union's Monitoring Mission and the Council of Europe's High Commissioner on Human Rights should strengthen their efforts to achieve the release of the three youngsters, who are being detained in complete violation of international law.

Other than the aforementioned youngsters, eleven more Georgian citizens, who are local residents of the occupied Tskhinvali region continue to remain in illegal custody of the Tskhinvli proxy regime. Among these persons is also Mr. Davit Kapanadze, a brother of one of the participants of the Geneva discussions - Mr. Giorgi Kapanadze. Among the captives there are also the residents of Akhalgori, who had been arrested by the Russian occupation forces on August 31, 2009. One of the detaineees - Zviad Kopaladze is in need of constant medical supervision and regular treatment with the psychotropic medicines. The entire responsibility on the future of these people lies with the Russian occupation forces, because, first of all Russia exercises effective control over the Tskhinvali region and its proxy regime and secondly, the arrest of the majority of these people had been carried out by the Russian occupation forces.

The Georgian side calls on the Russian occupation forces, to refrain from the unjustifiable and provocative incidents and stop the persecution and detention of the local population. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia wants to emphasize, that the law enforcement agencies of Georgia refrain from detaining the local residents, who cross the occupation line. Moreover, it has been agreed during the August 12 Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism meeting, that the Russian occupation forces and Tskhinvali proxy regime would act in the same manner. Despite the fact that during the following meetings the participants of the mechanism reaffirmed their commitment to this arrangement, commitment still remains to be implemented.

It is noteworthy that as a gesture of a goodwill Georgian side has already released several local residents, who were detained in 2008 during and after the large scale hostilities for such crimes as robbery, looting and illegal possession of weapons. Georgian side believes that unconditional release of all persons detained during and after the war will contribute to the rebuilding of trust between the "war-torn" societies and will be conducive to a stability on the ground. Hereby, it is important not to politicize the issue and to treat the detained persons so that their honor and interests of the family members are respected. We hope that with the involvement of international community Russian occupation forces and the representatives of the Tskhinvali proxy regime will also release remaining detainees.

We should particularly mention the four citizens of Russia who are not local residents, and who have been detained by Georgian law enforcers after entering the territory of Georgia in violation of the state border, visa laws and the Georgian law on the occupied territories. Ministry of Foreign Affairs would like to call on all citizens of the Russian Federation, who are not the local residents of the Tskhinvali region, to avoid crossing Georgian state border in violation of Georgian legislation. Otherwise the Government of Georgia will be forced to take adequate measures towards the violators.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia would like to once again urge international community to intensify its efforts aimed at swift release of the citizens of Georgia, currently detained unlawfully on the occupied territories.

Tbilisi, 15 December 2009