JCC Agrees on talks between Interior, Education Ministers

Boris Chochiev, the South Ossetia chief negotiator and Deputy Chairman of the breakaway region’s government, hailed the ongoing session of the Joint Control Commission (JCC) in Tskhinvali as productive.

The two-day session of the quadripartite negotiating body, involving the Georgian, South Ossetian, Russian and Russia’s North Ossetian sides, was opened on May 11 in the breakaway region’s capital.

“Today we decided to agree on a date for a meeting of Ministers of Internal Affairs in frames of the JCC at the session tomorrow… We have also agreed to hold a meeting beween Education Ministers, also in frames of JCC, in the nearest future,” Boris Chochiev told reporters.

The sides have reached an agreement over a meeting between Interior Ministers several times during previous JCC sessions, but these agreements have yet to come to fruition.

Recently, the Georgian side proposed a plan to rehabilitate the schools in the conflict zone and a meeting between Education Ministers is most likely related to this proposal.

But the sides fail to agree over the OSCE-proposed initiative to develop and sign an agreement on a non-resumption of hostilities. The South Ossetian and Russian sides welcomed the initiative, but the Georgian side remained reluctant.

“We think that the peace plan itself, proposed by the Georgian side, is the major guarantee [of peace], as it is a commitment undertaken by the Georgian side towards the entire international community,” Giorgi Khaindrava, the State Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues, who represents the Georgian side in the JCC, told reporters.