Loshchinin, Kokoity Discuss South Ossetia

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Valery Loshchinin held talks with South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity in Moscow on October 4, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported on October 5.

The Russian side proposed setting up a joint investigation group involving OSCE observers to probe into the September 20 shelling of the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Loshchinin and Kokoity discussed the recent tensions in the South Ossetian conflict zone in the wake of the Tskhinvali shelling and settlement of the situation ?first of all, through existing mechanisms ? the quadripartite Joint Control Commission and the Joint Peacekeeping Forces.?

Recently, official Tbilisi slammed the Joint Control Commission, which involves Georgia, South Ossetia, Russia and Russia?s North Ossetian Republic and oversees a 1992 ceasefire agreement in South Ossetia, as ?ineffective.? The Georgian Parliament also plans to pass a draft resolution next week instructing the government to take measures to prepare a withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from the country if the peacekeeping forces? performance does not improve before February, 2006 in South Ossetia.  

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