South Ossetia Suspends JCC Membership

South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity said South Ossetian side will not participate in the Joint Control Commission (JCC), until official Tbilisi apologizes for shelling Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian Press and Information Committee reported on September 21.
 
The JCC session was planned to be held in late September in Russia?s North Ossetian capital Vladikavkaz to discuss the current situation in the conflict zone and the demilitarization issues. The JCC is a quadripartite body involving the Georgian, South Ossetian, Russian and Russia?s North Ossetian sides, which oversees ceasefire and demilitarization in the conflict zone.
 
?Until the Georgian side officially apologizes, we will stop working in frames of the JCC. In the current condition it is very difficult to talk about meeting with Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli,? Eduard Kokoity said. The South Ossetian leader and the Georgian PM were scheduled to meet by the end of September.

South Ossetian Foreign Minister Murad Jioyev also confirmed that the South Ossetian side suspends its participation in the JCC. ?How can we speak about the sessions of the commission, when Georgians speak firstly about peace plans and then opens fire at the peaceful population,? Jioyev told RIA Novosti news agency on September 21.
 
According to the latest reports, about ten civilians, including a two-year-old child, were injured as a result of mortar shelling of Tskhinvali. According to this report, mortar fire was opened at 7 am local time from the Georgian village of Ergneti, south of Tskhinvali.
 
The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel has already condemned shelling of civilian areas in the conflict zone saying that ?firing of heavy weapons into civilian areas is not only a serious breach of the ceasefire agreement, but it is also against all norms of civilized behaviour and decency.?

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