Burjanadze: Tbilisi has no Plans to Deploy Extra Troops in S.Ossetia

Georgian Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze said on June 14 that the Georgian side has no plans to deploy extra troops in Georgian villages in the South Ossetian conflict zone, despite “the tense situation there.”

Burjanadze?s comments followed a statement made by MP Guram Vakhtangashvili, who was elected in South Ossetia?s Georgian-populated Didi Liakhvi constituency, who said that the Georgian residents of the conflict zone want the central authorities of Georgia to increase security measures in Georgian villages there, especially after the disappearance of four Georgians in the conflict zone on June 6. He also accused the South Ossetian side of violating a demilitarization agreement and alleged that Ossetian militias continue to reinforce military fortifications on the hills overlooking the Georgian villages.

?I understand the concerns of the local population [in the conflict zone] but I want to call on them to keep calm and not to yield provocations. We have no intention of deploying troops there because we do not want to repeat the situation which occurred there last summer [August, 2004, when clashes erupted between Ossetian militias and Georgian troops],? Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze said.

?We want to solve this problem peacefully and we have already demonstrated our will [to do so] by pulling out extra troops from the conflict zone and by proposing a peace plan. But, at the same time, our response will be very strict if measures are undertaken against us and their military fortifications will not help them,? Nino Burjanadze said.

After this statement by Nino Burjanadze, MP Pikria Chikhradze from the opposition New Rights party pushed the issue of increasing the number of the Georgian servicemen in the Joint Peacekeeping Forces. The Russian, Georgian and Ossetian sides have the right to deploy a maximum of 500 soldiers as part of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces in the conflict zone.

?We are not talking about sending extra troops to South Ossetia; but what we are demanding is the deployment of the number of peacekeepers which we are authorized to have there. Currently there are only several dozen Georgian peacekeepers in the conflict zone, while we have right to have 500. We have not heard a reasonable explanation from the government why it happens so,? MP Pikria Chikhradze said.

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