The first draft of a law to establish an administrative unit in South Ossetia has been unveiled by President Saakashvili.
The entity, the draft legislation reads, aims at creating tools, which will help to resolve the conflict peacefully, to define the region’s autonomous status and to prepare for democratic elections.
The two-page document under the name “Draft Law on Creating Appropriate Conditions for Peaceful Resolution of Conflict in Former Autonomous District of South Ossetia” was circulated among parliamentarians on April 2. It will first be scrutinized by parliamentary committees, before being given its first reading in Parliament on April 5.
According to the draft, the president will be entitled to nominate “representatives of local political forces and representatives of local society” as the authorities of the administrative entity.
“This will not be a typical state structure; it will be more autonomous with the right to solve a certain range of issues independently, although there will be issues which will be solved through consultation with central authorities,” Zurab Dekanoidze, an acting parliamentary secretary of the president, told Civil.Ge on April 2.
He said that the central authorities will sign a memorandum with a person who will be selected as the head of the administration. “And after this the head of the administration will be approved by the president. That is the procedure,” Dekanoidze added.
The draft law outlines the following functions of the provisional administration:
- to execute authority in the framework of the rights granted by the president;
- to carry out negotiations on defining the autonomous status of the region;
- to cooperate in the framework of its own competences with Georgian state structures and international organizations to implement relevant measures for the peaceful resolution of the conflict;
- to develop relevant plans and projects on peaceful resolution of the conflict and to secure involvement of the local population in this process;
- to promote implementation of necessary measures to speed up peace talks;
- to promote confidence building measures;
- to coordinate implementation of humanitarian projects;
- to promote infrastructure rehabilitation;
- to implement other actions specified by the president in the future.
Officials say that the document is designed to set a very general framework without going into too many specifics.
“Even the territory which will be under the control of the administration has not been defined yet by this draft law. Based on this document, the president will define the borders of this territory later and seek approval from Parliament,” MP Levan Bezhashvili, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Legal Issues, told Civil.Ge on April 2.
He also said that very specific functions of the administration, including finances and the collection of tax, “will be a matter of future talks” between the central authorities and the administration.
It is widely assumed that the pro-Tbilisi, alternative leader of South Ossetia, Dimitri Sanakoev, will be selected to chair the provisional administration.
“Alternative authorities currently have no legitimacy and there is a certain legal vacuum in this regard. The proposed draft law has been designed to legalize [pro-Tbilisi alternative authorities],” MP Bezhuashvili said.
Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze told senior lawmakers on April 2 that the proposed draft law is a “very important step forward towards the peaceful resolution of the conflict.”
However, the reaction from Russia has been less than positive. The Russian Foreign Ministry warned on March 29 that the proposal for a provisional administration would “shatter an already fragile situation” in the South Ossetian conflict zone.
President Saakashvili, however, has been quick to defend the plan. Speaking at the Senaki military base in western Georgia on April 2, he said that Tbilisi’s proposal had triggered, as he put it, “hysterical statements.”
“One of the structures [apparently referring to the Russian Foreign Ministry] reacted with hysterical statements to our decision to create a provisional administration unit in the framework of which we will work on the restoration of autonomy and Georgia’s territorial integrity,” Saakashvili said.
“I understood that we were on the right path, when I read those absolutely hysterical comments,” he said, “and we will continue to follow this path.”
