Tbilisi Unveils Document on South Ossetia Status

The official web-site of Georgian President?s administration published on March 24 a document – Initiatives of the Georgian Government with Respect to the Peaceful Resolution of the Conflict in South Ossetia, which is Tbilisi?s proposal regarding the status of breakaway South Ossetia within the Georgian state and is based on the initiatives voiced by President Saakashvili during his address to the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe on January 26.

According to this document Constitutional Law will outline the distribution of powers between Tbilisi and Tskhinvali. ?South Ossetia shall be granted broad self-governance, including the right of the population to freely and completely elect self government bodies. South Ossetia is granted Autonomous Status as a territorial entity of Georgia,? according to this document.

The document reads that the following issues will be under the prerogative of Georgia?s central government:

? National security and defense;
? Control of the armed forces (during a 3-year transition period Ossetian forces shall be integrated into the united Georgian Armed Forces);
? State border protection and custom-related policies;
? National financial issues, including currency and money supply and national taxation policies;
? Foreign policy (the South Ossetian authorities shall be granted certain rights with respect to foreign trade relationships, within a framework determined by law);
? Citizenship issues.

?The Parliament of South Ossetia shall implement legislative activities with regard to such issues as culture, education, social policies, economic policies, public order, organization of local self-governance and environmental protection,? the document reads.

In the document Tbilisi also offers to grant the Ossetian language official status, alongside Georgian, in the territory of South Ossetia.

The Georgian side would also adopt a Law on Property Restitution so that every family which suffered during the 1990-1992 armed conflict would receive ?a lump-sum monetary compensation.? Tbilisi also expresses a readiness to pay pension arrears to the residents of South Ossetia that have accumulated since 1991.

In addition, Tbilisi offers to establish a joint Georgian-Ossetian police force during the three-year transition period in South Ossetia.

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