Irish envoy set to handle prisoner swaps

GEORGIA AND its rebel region of South Ossetia have conducted their largest exchange of prisoners in recent years as part of trust-building efforts that Ireland will play a key part in from tomorrow.

The handover of 26 detainees was brokered by the European Union monitoring mission in Georgia and a special representative of Lithuania in its role as chairman of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Ireland will chair the 56-nation OSCE in 2012, when prisoner swaps and other sensitive issues are likely to be handled by diplomat Pádraig Murphy, whom Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore has made his special representative for the South Caucasus. Mr Murphy will also co-chair difficult talks in Geneva between Georgia, Russia, South Ossetia and its fellow breakaway province Abkhazia.

Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 to repulse its bid to reassert control over South Ossetia, and thousands of Russian troops are now stationed in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

“Helping people affected by the conflict to resume their normal lives was a key priority of the Lithuanian OSCE chairmanship. Continuing efforts in this direction is of the utmost importance,” said the Baltic state’s foreign minister, Audronius Azubalis.

Ireland will also be at the forefront of OSCE efforts to resolve a “frozen conflict” between Moldova and its rebel province of Transdniestria. The region’s new president Yevgeny Shevchuk said yesterday he would focus on “winning recognition for Transdniestria and on friendship with our strategic partners in Russia”.