Kokoity Wants to Boost JCC Status
South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity said that the ?status? of the Joint Control Commission (JCC) should be increased in an attempt to transform the body into a more meaningful vehicle for conflict resolution.
?We think that the status of the Joint Control Commission should be increased. People with more authority should be involved in the JCC. We are not going to stop the peace process. Moreover, we are ready for even more active and decisive actions in this regard,? Kokoity said.
The JCC involves the Georgian, South Ossetian, Russian and Russia?s North Ossetian sides, and was set up to oversee a 1992 ceasefire agreement in South Ossetia.
The Georgian side deems this body an ineffective arrangement and seeks to revise its format, which currently creates unfavorable conditions for the Georgian side in the process of negotiations. In frames of the JCC, Tbilisi has to grapple with the South Ossetian side as well as representatives of Russia and Russia?s North Ossetian republic, who, according to officials in Tbilisi, fail to act as unbiased mediators.