Moscow Wants Radar Station in S.Ossetia

Russia has called for an urgent session of the Joint Control Commission (JCC) to discuss the possibility of installing a radar station in the South Ossetian conflict zone.

The JCC is a quadripartite negotiating body for South Ossetia in which Tbilisi has refused to participate since early March.

“We propose to convene a plenary session of the JCC by the end of July in Moscow to discuss urgent military and military-technical measures for confidence in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone,” Yuri Popov, the Russian chief negotiator on South Ossetia, said in a letter sent to JCC participants, including the South Ossetian, Georgian and Russia’s North Ossetian sides. The text was posted on the South Ossetian Press and Information Committee website on July 1.

“One of the measures of this type could be the deployment of a radar station under the command of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces [JPKF] in order to track down unauthorized infiltration of aircraft in the conflict zone,” the Russian diplomat continued in the letter.

The JPKF is made up of three peacekeeping battalions from the Russian, Ossetian and Georgian sides. Formally they operate under the Russian command.

The Russian diplomat also said that the parties involved would be given access to the information obtained at the radar station.

“Such a move would contribute to the prevention of incidents similar to those that occurred close to the village of Tsitelubani last August and on April 20 in Abkhazia involving an unmanned Georgian aerial vehicle,” Popov said.

A military aircraft, which the Georgian authorities and western military experts said after a probe, intruded into Georgia’s airspace from Russia, fired an anti-radar missile and flew back to the Russian Federation on August 6, 2007. Russia has strongly denied the allegation and said after its own military experts had conducted an investigation that the incident was staged.

On April 20, 2008 an unmanned Georgian reconnaissance drone was shot down by a Russian aircraft over Abkhazia, according to the probe conducted by the UN observers on the ground. Russia again denied the allegation and said evidence based on which the conclusion was made was fabricated by the Georgian side.

On June 30 the Russian command of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces reported about “an unauthorized overflight” of an SU-25 Frogfoot aircraft on June 28.

The Russian diplomat also said in the letter that the situation on the ground was deteriorating in the South Ossetian conflict zone, which was “a source of alarm.”

“Incidents involving the use of arms are occurring daily,” Popov said. “The number of illegally set up checkpoints [in the conflict zone] is increasing. Developments of this type are dangerous, especially in light of the existing negotiating vacuum.”

Tbilisi announced in early March that it would no longer participate in talks in the frames of the Russian-dominated JCC. Instead Tbilisi has offered to replace that negotiating format with a new one based on a 2+2+2 formula. The North Ossetian side, in accordance with Tbilisi’s proposal, would be replaced by the Tbilisi-backed South Ossetian provisional administration, led by Dimitri Sanakoev, and the OSCE and EU would also be included.

Moscow and Tskhinvali are against any change in the negotiating format.

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.

The EU’s reaction is more cautious. In a joint statement issued on June 23, EU ambassadors accredited in Tbilisi said: “we have taken note of the intention of the OSCE Chairman to consider possible new formats.”