JCC Takes a Break in Moscow Talks over South Ossetia
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| Georgia says the ‘key’ to solving the South Ossetian conflict resolution is in Moscow. |
“We decided to take a break and hold consultations with our governments. We will continue talks tomorrow [July 15],” Georgian State Minister Goga Khaindrava, who represents Georgia at the talks, told reporters late on July 14, after all day long negotiations with his fellow representatives.
“The sides have proposed particular complaints and demands. Now we are going to agree on a further plan of action with our governments and afterwards, tomorrow, we will continue talks,” Boris Chochiev, who represents the South Ossetian side at the JCC, told reporters.
Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues Goga Khaindrava told reporters on July 14 that Tbilisi demands both to set up a checkpoint at the Roki Pass linking South Ossetia with Russia and the pull out of militia groups from the Java district in the breakaway region.
“It is very important for us to control the Roki Pass,” Russian media sources reported Goga Khaindrava as saying.
Georgian authorities claim that smuggled goods and weapons are delivered to the breakaway region through the tunnel at the Roki Pass, which links Russia’s North Ossetian Republic with its neighboring self-styled South Ossetian Republic.
It is expected that the South Ossetian response to the proposal will be known by July 15, when the talks are renewed; however Tskhinvali already rejected a similar proposal by Tbilisi in late June.
Goga Khaindrava also told reporters that Tbilisi insists on “demilitarization of the conflict zone.” He added that “Mercenaries must leave the Java district. We will not tolerate the presence of an unauthorized heavy armament, nor armored vehicles in the conflict zone either.”
The South Ossetian side reported on July 12 that armed groups of volunteers from Georgia’s other breakaway region of Abkhazia as well as from Russia’s North Ossetian Republic arrived in South Ossetia after sporadic shootouts erupted in the region on July 8. Gunfire was exchanged in the region over the following days and resulted in the wounding of seven Georgians. Tskhinvali also reported that several South Ossetian militias were injured.
Meanwhile, the Russian and South Ossetian sides accuse Georgia of dispatching an additional 3,000 troops into the conflict zone, which largely exceeds the number of soldiers permitted to be deployed into the breakaway region. According to the 1992 peace agreement, the Georgian, South Ossetian and Russian sides may maintain a maximum force of 500 soldiers each as a part of the joint peacekeeping process in the conflict zone.
Both Moscow and Tskhinvali demand that Tbilisi dismantle 16 checkpoints for Georgian police and internal troops that were installed in the conflict zone in early June.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who returns from an official visit in UK on July 15, told reporters in London that he pins his hopes on Vladimir Putin’s “pragmatic stance” and he himself will not let “certain imperialist forces in Russia” trigger an armed conflict in South Ossetia.
“We came here [in Moscow] to secure peace in the region. The key is in Moscow,” Goga Khaindrava, the Georgian State Minister told reporters in Moscow on July 14.
Russia, which has maintained a leading role in political settlement of the South Ossetian conflict for the past decade, does not hide the fact that it can not be indifferent towards South Ossetia.
A Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement issued in July reads that Moscow “will not remain indifferent towards the fate of its citizens, which comprise the absolute majority of South Ossetia.”
Tbilisi has frequently protested against Russia’s policy of issuing passports to the residents of its breakaway South Ossetian and Abkhazian regions, but the complaints have fallen on deaf ears.
All parties present at the JCC talks on July 14 showed a commitment to solve the disputed issues through talks.
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)