Commission on S.Ossetia Status Moves Forward

The state commission on South Ossetia will be reconvened on August 15 in Tbilisi. Sub-groups, formed at the previous session, are expected to lay out proposals on the region?s broad autonomous status within the Georgian state.

Meeting last in the village of Tamarasheni in the conflict zone on July 28, five sub-groups were tasked with focusing on constitutional and legal issues; economic; financial; cultural; and educational issues.

Officials from the central authorities and the Tbilisi-backed South Ossetian provisional administration, as well as civil society representatives and one lawmaker from the opposition Republican Party, Ivliane Khaindrava, participated in the session. The Republicans are the only opposition party cooperating with the state commission.

Tbilisi has requested Russian and EU involvement in the work of the commission.

Peter Semneby, the EU?s special representative for the South Caucasus, said on July 28 in Tbilisi that the EU had yet ?to look at the request? of the Georgian government. ?We may have some follow up questions for the Georgian side,? he added.

Semneby, however, pointed out that the EU was in a good position to provide expertise vis-a-vis status issues and and supporting legislation.

The Russian ambassador in Georgia, Vyacheslav Kovalenko, said on July 27 he doubted Russia would be involved in the commission.

Georgian PM Zurab Nogaideli, who chairs the commission, however, said on July 28 that he thought Russia would be ?involved in a certain form.?

Secessionist authorities in Tskhinvali have already refused to be involved.

It is likely that the autonomous status developed by the commission will be based on the blueprint outlined by Tbilisi in 2005 in a document called Initiatives of the Georgian Government with Respect to the Peaceful Resolution of the Conflict in South Ossetia.

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