Tskhinvali Calls for JCC Session ‘to Defuse Tensions’
South Ossetian chief negotiator Boris Chochiev has called for the immediate convening of a quadripartite Joint Control Commission (JCC) session. He called for the participation of law enforcement agencies from the different sides to the conflict, in order to defuse tensions in the region.
In a letter sent to the other three JCC participants – Georgia, Russia and Russia’s North Ossetia – Chochiev said that Tbilisi was escalating tensions by constructing military fortifications and a new road in the conflict zone.
Tskhinvali has said that the new road – to the south of the breakaway region’s capital – could give Tbilisi a military advantage in the event of an outbreak of hostilities.
Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili, speaking at the site of the road construction on June 15, however, dismissed Tskhinvali’s fears as “imaginary.”
“Our forces are standing here quietly… I want to thank our workers, who despite these imaginary tensions, continue their job and construct the road,” Merabishvili said.
Merabishvili, reportedly, met the Commander of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces in the conflict zone, Marat Kulakhmetov. He refused, however, to meet the interior minister of the breakaway region, Mikhail Mindzaev, according to the South Ossetian Press and Information committee.
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