PM: Georgia Starting Demilitarization Process in S.Ossetia
Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli said on February 18 that the units of the Georgian Military Police currently deployed in the South Ossetian conflict zone will become part of the Georgian battalion of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces (JPKF). As a result, the Georgian side will increase its peacekeeping troops in the conflict zone to 330 servicemen.
The JPKF consists of Russian, Georgian and Ossetian peacekeeping battalions. Each side is authorized to deploy a maximum of 500 servicemen to the conflict zone as part of the JPKF. All other military units deployed in the conflict zone are unauthorized.
The PM also said that this move is part of the demilitarization process going on in the conflict zone.
He said that the Georgian side will also launch a rotation of its peacekeeping battalion, starting from February 19. “We will send the list of these servicemen to the JPKF command and agree on this [list] with the command of the JPKF on February 20,” PM Nogaideli said, adding that the Georgian side will rotate its peacekeepers once every three months, starting this spring.
He also said that the Georgian side will start filling its trenches and dismantling its military fortifications in the conflict zone as soon as the snow there starts melting. Nogaideli said that this is also part of the Georgian side’s “unilateral actions aimed at demilitarizing the conflict zone.”
He called on the South Ossetian side to undertake similar actions in order to defuse tensions in the region.
The Georgian Prime Minister was speaking at a news conference after a session of the governmental council on South Ossetian, which also includes State Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues and the Interior, Defense and Foreign Affairs Ministers.
