Foreign Minister Comments on Peacekeepers’ Resolution

Withdrawal from the agreements, based on which the Russian peacekeepers are deployed in the conflict zones, “is a difficult process,” but possible, Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said on July 19.

“Certain tools for withdrawal from the international treaties exist, it is quite a difficult process and quite arguable one, but if a political decision is taken we have our arguments on how to withdraw from these agreements,” Bezhuashvili said.

He said President Saakashvili has final say in whether to demand Russian peacekeepers’ withdrawal or not.
 
Saakashvili said on July 18 after the Parliament passed a resolution instructing the government to launch procedures for withdrawal of Russian troops from breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia, that the government will take final decision after he meets the Russian leader this week in Moscow.

“We will continue discussion of these issues during this meeting… We are going [to Moscow] with concrete proposals on how to make the conflict resolution process unfreeze… We are ready for a compromise,” Bezhuashvili said.

Foreign Minister Bezhuashvili also said that meanwhile the government is working on those “legal and technical” procedures which are necessary to implement in order to follow the Parliament’s July 18 resolution.

The Parliament also instructed the government to secure deployment of international police forces in the conflict zones.

“The major problem in this regard is under whose aegis peacekeeping operations will be carried out,” Bezhuashvili said, adding that Russia has decisive voice both in UN and OSCE.

He said that intensive consultations are under with EU in this respect.

Russian troops are in South Ossetia as part of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces (JPKF), which also involves Georgian and Ossetian servicemen. The JPKF was deployed in the conflict zone based on a June 24, 1992 agreement between the Russian and Georgian leaders.

Russian peacekeepers are deployed in the Abkhaz conflict zone under the aegis of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), in accordance to an agreement on Cease-Fire and Separation of Forces signed by the Georgian and Abkhaz sides in Moscow on May 14, 1994.

Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues Giorgi Khaindrava said on July 19 that none of the provision of the agreements, which make a legal base of the peacekeeping operations, is fulfilled by the Russian peacekeeping troops and this should become a reason for renunciation of these agreements.

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