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| JCC co-chairs: (from left to right) Russia’s special envoy Lev Mironov, South Ossetian Special Affairs Minister Boris Chochiev, Teimuraz Kusiev of North Ossetia and Georgian State Minister Goga Khaindrava. Tbilisi, August 17. |
Both the Georgian and South Ossetian sides agreed on a ceasefire, the demilitarization of the conflict zone and securing free movement of people in the region on August 17; however Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania says no significant breakthrough is anticipated without first launching talks over the political status of breakaway South Ossetia.
This is the second agreement in four days between South Ossetia and Georgia regarding a ceasefire. The August 13 ceasefire deal was violated immediately after the signing of the agreement.
The agreement was reached during a meeting between the co-chairmen of the quadripartite Joint Control Commission (JCC) and Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania in Tbilisi on August 17. South Ossetian Special Affairs Minister Boris Chochiev, Russian Foreign Ministry’s special Ambassador Lev Mironov and Teimuraz Kusiev of Russia’s North Ossetian Republic, as well as Head of the OSCE Mission to Georgia Roy Reeve all participate in talks.
Georgian State Minister Goga Khaindrava, who represents the Georgian side at the JCC, told reporters after the talks that the “next three days will be crucial.” He added that in the instance that the agreement is not implemented within three days the Georgian side will refuse to pull out its extra troops from the conflict zone.
According to the August 16 agreement, only those troops which are part of the joint – Russian, Georgian and Ossetian – peacekeeping forces should remain the region. According to a 1992 peace agreement, Russia, Georgia and Ossetia each have the right to maintain a 500-person peacekeeping presence in the area.
A handshake agreement also envisages free movement of people in the conflict zone. Tbilisi fears that the South Ossetian side might take over vital by-pass roads, which link the Georgian controlled territories with the Georgian villages north of the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali.
South Ossetian representative Boris Chochiev told reporters that the co-chairmen of the JCC will also hold talks with South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoev in Tskhinvali on August 18. “I think he [Kokoev] will not be against holding direct talks with Prime Minister Zhvania,” Chochiev said. The Georgian side insists on bilateral talks between Kokoev and Zhvania.
Zurab Zhvania intends to push the issue of the political status of the breakaway region should a meeting with Eduard Kokoev take place. The Georgian Prime Minister, who hailed the recent agreement with the South Ossetian side, said at a news briefing on August 17 that the “establishment of long-lasting stability and peace in the region will be impossible without resolving the problem of South Ossetia’s status.”
Georgian Defense Minister Giorgi Baramidze told reporters on August 17 that Tbilisi is ready to grant South Ossetia “more autonomy than North Ossetia enjoys in the Russian Federation.”
Simultaneous talks were held between Chief of Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces Givi Iukuridze and de facto South Ossetian Defense Minister Anatolii Barankevich in Tskhinvali on August 17. Later Georgian Defense Minister Giorgi Baramidze also held talks with his separatist counterpart. Giorgi Baramidze told reporters after the talks that the South Ossetian side admits there are armed groups in the breakaway region which are beyond Tskhinvali’s control.
These so-called “uncontrolled armed groups” are mainly made up of mercenaries and volunteers who came into South Ossetia from the Russian Federation, as well as from Georgia’s other breakaway region of Abkhazia.
The Georgian side offered the Russian and South Ossetian side to carry out operation against these groups jointly. “The South Ossetian side claims that there is a certain third force in the region, armed groups which do not obey Tskhinvali’s orders. Therefore, we proposed to carry out a joint operation to wipe-out these groups, if there are any,” Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania said.
Meanwhile, Tbilisi is trying to secure international help in an attempt to avoid a large-scale military situation.
Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili met with Ambassadors of many foreign countries accredited in Georgia and presented them with a special address by President Saakashvili. In this address Saakashvili appeals to the world community to mediate a peaceful settlement of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict.
Later on August 17 Salome Zourabichvili left for Vienna to address the special session of the OSCE Permanent Council over the situation in South Ossetia on August 18.
