EU Diplomats Visit S.Ossetia

A group of EU diplomats accredited in Tbilisi visited the South Ossetian conflict zone on June 23 to, as they put it, “assess the situation, which remains tense.”

After meeting with Murat Jioev, the foreign minister of breakaway South Ossetia, and Boris Chochiev, the chief South Ossetian negotiator, in Tskhinvali, the EU diplomats also traveled to the Georgian-controlled village of Kurta, where the Tbilisi-sponsored South Ossetian provisional administration is headquartered. There EU the diplomats met with Dimitri Sanakoev, the head of the provisional administration, prompting protest from Tskhinvali.

“As it turned out, upon returning from the village of Sveri, where the delegation examined the facility under construction in frames of the [EU-sponsored] economic rehabilitation program, the ambassadors visited the village of Kurta, in violation of the pre-arranged program, where they met with Dimitri Sanakoev,” the South Ossetian secessionist authorities said in a statement on June 23. “As ‘the provisional administration of South Ossetia’ has nothing to do with the economic rehabilitation program and its implementation, we consider this meeting [with Sanakoev] as counter-productive and a provocative attempt to give a certain political weight and an image of respectability to ‘the provisional administration.’”
 
“These actions by the ambassadors obviously contradict the diplomatic protocol, the previously declared position of the EU about its adherence to peaceful settlement of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict along with the fulfillment of the previously signed agreements,” the breakaway region’s authorities said.

In a statement issued by the EU ambassadors after the trip to the conflict zone, they pointed out that the European Union “has been effective” in facilitating meetings within the framework of the Joint Control Commission “which is the main forum of the conflict settlement process.”

“We have taken note of the intention of the OSCE Chairman to consider possible new formats,” the statement added.

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, said on May 30 it was time to look into possibilities for a new negotiating format for resolving the South Ossetian conflict.

Tbilisi wants to scrap the current Russian-dominated negotiating mechanism for South Ossetia – the quadripartite Joint Control Commission (JCC) – and replace it with a 2+2+2 formula, which would see Russia’s North Ossetia being replaced by the Tbilisi-backed South Ossetian provisional administration and the inclusion of the OSCE and the EU. The move is opposed by Moscow and Tskhinvali.

One man was killed and four people injured in Tskhinvali as a result of an overnight shootout on June 14-15 between Georgian and South Ossetian forces. An OSCE vehicle carrying monitors was hit twice, apparently from an automatic grenade launcher; there were no casualties as the vehicle was protected by armor.

“We urge once again both parties to refrain from any provocation and to engage in fresh negotiations,” the EU diplomats said in the statement.