Negotiators on S.Ossetia Meet in Tbilisi

Georgian, South Ossetian, Russian and Russia?s North Ossetian negotiators are meeting in Tbilisi on October 23 for the first time in over a year.

Tskhinvali and Tbilisi will push for their own agendas during the plenary session of the Joint Control Commission (JCC), which is being held in the headquarters of the OSCE Mission in Georgia.

?Demilitarization of the region, disarmament of illegal armed groups and prevention of arms trafficking is our top priority,? Davit Bakradze, the Georgian state minister for conflict resolution issues, told reporters on October 23.

He said two measures were required to achieve these goals: control of Roki Tunnel, which links the breakaway region with neighboring North Ossetia and the establishment of an observation post at Didi Gupta village.

The village is located at the northern extreme of the conflict zone – an area defined as a 15-km radius around the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali. Tbilisi hopes that an observation post at Didi Gupta would prevent trafficking of arms within the conflict zone.

Bakradze said the measures would be ?a decisive step? towards demilitarization.

?This is a key to conflict resolution,? he said. ?But I think it will be hard to reach an agreement on these issues. It is not an easy task to achieve.?

Bakradze attended the opening of the session and then left. Georgia is represented in the JCC by Bakradze?s deputy, Dimitri Manjavidze.

Meanwhile, the South Ossetian side is expected to push for an agreement on the non-use of force, which, they hope, will be signed by South Ossetian secessionist leader Eduard Kokoity and President Saakashvili.

Tbilisi, however, has been refusing to sign such  an agreement, saying that it would only do so after the internationalization of peacekeeping operations and the negotiating format.

Boris Chochiev, the South Ossetian chief negotiator, said on October 22 that he would also raise the ?illegal arrest? of ethnic Ossetians by Georgian police in the conflict zone in recent months.

In the most recent case, Georgian police arrested Ivan Bestaev in the village of Avnevi on October 21. Officials have said Bestaev was suspected of attacking and injuring three Georgian policemen in August 2007.

In his opening remarks at the session, Chochiev said the South Ossetian side was ?ready for constructive dialogue? to resolve numerous problems which have been accumulating since the last JCC session, which was held in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia, last October.

Tbilisi has been trying for more than a year to undermine the JCC, which it considers to be a Russian-dominated negotiation format.

On September 5, following the August 6 missile incident, Bakradze said that before the JCC session could convene, Russia had ?to answer several questions from the Georgian side?, including some concerning the missile incident. He said incidents of this kind undermined Russia?s role as a mediator.

The JCC session, which lasts for two days, is the first one for Terhi Hakala, the new head of the OSCE Mission in Georgia. She is a former Finnish roving ambassador to the South Caucasus.