Georgia Says Russia Sent Additional Troops to S.Ossetia

A convoy of 30 trucks carrying Russian soldiers entered into the breakaway South Ossetia from Russia via Roki Tunnel late on May 31, said influential MP Givi Targamadze, who chairs Parliamentary Committee for Defense and Security, at a news conference on June 1, adding that there are at least 1000 Russian servicemen in the conflict zone.

Russia says that it is sending new servicemen to the South Ossetian conflict zone to rotate its peacekeepers there.

“There is no rotation in the Tskhinvali Region [breakaway South Ossetia]; what is happening there is an increase of [Russia’s] military presence there,” MP Targamadze said.

He said that 13 trucks carrying Russian servicemen, as well as 2 infantry combat vehicles were deployed in the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali on May 30 as part of the peacekeepers’ rotation.

According to MP Targamadze the Russian side stated that a number of newly arrived servicemen failed to fill the Russian quota in the Joint Peacekeeping Forces (JPKF), which also consists of Georgian and Ossetian peacekeepers. Each of these three sides has the right to deploy a maximum of 500 servicemen as peacekeepers.

“So they [the Russian side] said that they will leave part of those servicemen [in the conflict zone] who were already serving there. But not a single serviceman left the conflict zone as envisaged by the rotation procedure. On the contrary, yesterday, late night, they dispatched additional troops in 30 trucks,” MP Targamadze said.

He added that according to the Georgian side there are currently at least 1000 Russian servicemen in the conflict zone, which is twice as many as envisaged by the agreement.

“This is an occupation of part of Georgia’s territory,” MP Targamadze added.

He said that the Parliamentary Committee for Defense and Security has requested the Georgian Foreign Ministry to immediately inform foreign diplomats in Georgia regarding the ongoing events in breakaway South Ossetia and also to request the OSCE mission in Georgia to immediately carry out a monitoring of the JPKF’s base in Tskhinvali. MP Targamadze also called for an emergency session of the quadripartite Joint Control Commission (JCC) to discuss the issue.

“We will wait for the results of these measures, then we will assess the situation and I think at the next session of the Parliament [on June 6] we will push for the adoption of a special resolution, but it will depend on how the situation will develop further,” MP Targamadze said.