JCC on S.Ossetia Resumes Talks
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| From left to right: the South Ossetian, Georgian, Russian chief negotiators, Boris Chochiev, Dimitri Manjavidze and Yuri Popov, respectively, and new head of OSCE mission in Georgia Terhi Hakala. Photo: OSCE//David Khizanishvili. |
Russian chief negotiator Yuri Popov made a brief comment for the press before the session this morning, suggesting that no concrete results were expected from the talks.
“Today we will work on this document [the protocol] which will reflect the sides’ positions on our future joint work and future negotiating process,” Popov said. “What’s important is to have some concrete results in the following meetings.”
The session of the quadripartite negotiating body, the Joint Control Commission (JCC), which started on October 23, is being held in the OSCE mission headquarters in Tbilisi and is the first one in over a year.
Georgian chief negotiator Dimitri Manjavidze said after the first day of talks in Tbilisi on October 23 that the sides were close to an agreement to place an observation post on the northern fringe of the South Ossetian conflict zone, something Tbilisi has been pushing for.
“The Russian and North Ossetian sides, as well as the OSCE, share our position on placing an observation post of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces [involving Georgian, Russian and Ossetian troops] at Didi Gupta,” Manjavidze, the Georgian deputy state minister for conflict resolution issues, told reporters after the talks which lasted for over seven hours on October 23.
He, however, also said it was “hard to convince” the South Ossetian side of the need for such a post.
The village of Didi Gupta 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 will prevent trafficking of arms within the conflict zone.
Russian diplomat Yuri Popov was more cautious about the issue and said on October 23 that “concrete agreement” still hadn’t been reached.
Meanwhile, the South Ossetian side has been pushing for an agreement on the non-use of force, which, Tskhinvali hopes, will be signed by South Ossetian secessionist leader Eduard Kokoity and President Saakashvili.
Georgian negotiators, however, say such an agreement is pointless in the absence of demilitarization. An observation post in Didi Gupta, Tbilisi says, is the first step in this direction, with others to follow, including control of Roki Tunnel, which links the breakaway region with neighboring North Ossetia.
Yet another point of contention between the sides is the role of Dimitri Sanakoev, the head of the Tbilisi-backed South Ossetian provisional administration. While Tbilisi has been trying to promote Sanakoev’s administration as a party in the conflict, which represents at least part of the South Ossetian population, Tskhinvali deems it a “puppet” of Tbilisi’s.
“Sanakoev represents the Georgian authorities and we do not see any reason why [he] should be involved in the talks,” Yuri Popov told reporters. “He does not constitute a side in the conflict.”
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