Tbilisi, Tskhinvali Resume Talks

Georgian State Minister: No shots heard, but no firm peace either in South Ossetia

The Georgian and South Ossetian sides will meet in Moscow on September 30-October 1 within the frames of a quadripartite Joint Control Commission (JCC) in a bid, as the two sides put it, “to work out firm guarantees of a ceasefire” in the conflict zone.

This will be the first talks between the conflicting sides in the frames of the JCC, which also involves the Russian and North Ossetian sides, since a ceasefire was called, which has persisted in breakaway South Ossetia since August 20, after the Georgian side pulled out its non-peacekeeping troops from the conflict zone in the wake of armed clashes with South Ossetian militias.

“We will definitely participate in the meeting of the JCC and discuss the issue of firm guarantees of a ceasefire. We will also push the issue of top-level talks between [the Georgian Prime Minister] Zurab Zhvania and [the South Ossetian de facto President] Eduard Kokoev,” Goga Khaindrava, the Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues, who represents the Georgian side at the JCC, told Civil Georgia on September 25.

Goga Khaindrava said that currently there is only fragile peace in the conflict zone. “No shots are heard, but there is no firm peace either,” he added. He also said that a long pause between meetings of the JCC was due to the hostage-taking tragedy which took place in Russia’s North Ossetian town of Beslan in early September.

The South Ossetian side articulated its position over the forthcoming JCC meeting in a statement issued by the South Ossetian Press and Information Committee on September 24.

“The withdrawal of illegal armed groups from the conflict zone, stabilization of the situation in the conflict zone, as well as the possibility of holding a meeting between high level officials in the frames of the JCC is planned to be discussed during the talks,” Boris Chochiev, the South Ossetian Special Affairs Minister who represents the South Ossetian side at the JCC, said, according to the South Ossetian Press and Information Committee.

Boris Chochiev also said that the approval of a new commander of the joint – Russian-Georgian-Ossetian – peacekeeping force is also scheduled for the forthcoming JCC meeting in Moscow. The Russian side recently replaced the chief of the peacekeepers Sviatoslav Nabzdorov with Maj.Gen. Murat Kulakhmetov.

The sides also plan to discuss the possibility of an increase in the number of military observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), who monitor the conflict zone, from the current five up to ten. Discussions over these issues are also underway at the OSCE.

Boris Chochiev said that the South Ossetian side also intends to express its protest at the JCC meeting over “violations which the Georgian side commit while rotating its peacekeepers.” Georgia, like the Ossetian and Russian sides, has 500 peacekeepers in the conflict zone, as envisaged by the 1992 ceasefire agreement.

“The Georgian side has rotated peacekeepers four times already since May 31. According to the agreement, the rotation should be carried out once every six months. At the same time, the Georgian side does not provide a list of servicemen dispatched in the conflict zone as peacekeepers,” Chochiev added.

“It is our opinion that Georgia rotates its troops in the conflict zone so often because it lets more servicemen familiarize themselves with the area and get ready for military action,” the South Ossetian representative said.

South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoev said on September 17, while visiting Moscow, that Georgia “is planning aggression,” supposedly expected by the end of September.

But the Georgian side is downplaying these accusations. “We do not comment on Chochiev’s accusations, which are absolutely groundless,” Goga Khaindrava, the Georgian State Minister told Civil Georgia. “The timeframe of the rotation of the Georgian peacekeepers is up to us and only we can make a decision about this,” he added.