South Ossetia Insists on Increase of ‘JCC Status’

South Ossetian Special Affairs Minister Boris Chochiev said on September 28 that the status of the Joint Control Commission should be increased in order to give the commission more authority.

“We have temporarily suspended the process of negotiations. If Georgia wants to continue talks, we will demand an increase of status of the negotiation process, meaning that agreements should be signed by those [officials] who will then be responsible for implementing these [agreements],” Boris Chochiev said while meeting with Ambassador of Belgium in Georgia Danielle del Marmol in Tskhinvali on September 28, the South Ossetian Press and Information Committee reported.

South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity also proposed on September 27 that the “status” of the Joint Control Commission (JCC) be increased in an attempt to transform the body into a more meaningful vehicle for conflict resolution. 

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.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)