U.S. Calls Georgia for Caution over Peacekeepers

U.S. Ambassador to the OSCE Julie Finley said while addressing the OSCE Permanent Council on February 9 that withdrawal of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces (JPKF) from the South Ossetian conflict zone “may be destabilizing.”

Ambassador Julie Finley was speaking in response to the Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili’s speech to the OSCE Permanent Council, in which Bezhuashvili focused on situation in South Ossetia, as well as on energy security issues.

“The United States urges the sovereign Parliament of Georgia to proceed with caution as it considers how to address the question of the effectiveness of the Joint Peace Keeping Force. We agree, and OSCE reports verify, that the JPKF could be more effective. Still, a request for the peacekeepers to leave without anything in their place may be destabilizing. In this regard, we call on Georgia to contribute its full complement of forces to maintain the proper balance within the JPKF. This should be done in strict coordination with existing mechanisms, in full transparency, and in accordance with previous agreements,” the speech of Ambassador Finley as delivered at the OSCE Permanent Council reads.

The Georgian Parliament is expected to discuss performance of the Russian peacekeeping forces station in the South Ossetian conflict zone at a session on February 15. Senior Georgian parliamentarians have made it clear that they will vote for a withdrawal of the peacekeepers if their performance is assessed as negative.

In the address, Ambassador Finley reiterated the U.S. offers “firm support” for the peaceful resolution of the status of Abkhazia and South Ossetia within Georgia and called on “all the parties, most notably the South Ossetians, to demonstrate the political will needed to bring this conflict to a peaceful resolution.”

The U.S. Ambassador also called “on all sides to abide by existing agreements and carry out demilitarization of the zone of conflict immediately.”

Ambassador Finley said that recognition of Georgia’s Peace Plan over South Ossetia by the OSCE in December as “a basis for future settlement of the conflict” and the response from South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity was a positive moment for the peace process.

“However, the meeting of the Joint Control Commission [JCC] in Moscow on December 27 was a disappointment. By all accounts, it did not advance the process. We sincerely hope that the next JCC meeting will bring more tangible results,” Ambassador Finley stated.

It is expected that a session of the quadripartite negotiating body, the JCC, will be held in Vienna this month under the initiative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht.