Russian Chief Negotiator Visits Tskhinvali

After talks in Tbilisi on Thursday, Russian chief negotiator for South Ossetian conflict Valery Kenyaikin left for the breakaway region?s capital Tskhinvali on December 9 to hold negotiations with the South Ossetian leadership.

After talks with the Russian diplomat in Tbilisi, Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues Giorgi Khaindrava said that he sees no reason to hold a session of the Joint Control Commission (JCC) until there is a solution to the situation regarding four Georgians who were abducted in the conflict zone in early June.

News broke last week that all four Georgians were killed and that a ransom demand was made to hand over of corpses to the relatives of the four men.  Relatives of one of the abducted men confirmed last week that they had recieved an amputated leg and a ransom demand of 100,000 USD for the return of the four corpses.

The Russian and South Ossetian sides proposed holding a session of the JCC on December 8, but the Georgian side refused, citing that Tbilisi was not informed in advance.

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