Controversial Reports over Deployment of Extra Arms Flare Tensions in Ossetia

Controversy persists over the Tkviavi checkpoint, which lies less than 10 km away from Tskhinvalil.

After the allegations by Georgian authorities that a convoy of trucks carrying weapons entered the breakaway South Ossetia, the OSCE Mission to Georgia monitored the situation in the South Ossetian conflict zone on June 12 and “found no evidence” of any military vehicles in the Tskhinvali area.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, as well as Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, State Minister for conflict resolutions Goga Khaindrava and other Georgian officials, claimed that between 160-170 military transport vehicles loaded with weapons, including the anti-aircraft missiles, entered into the breakaway South Ossetia through neighboring Russia’s North Ossetian Republic.

However, the OSCE Mission, which is engaged in the peace process, reported “the observers found no evidence to substantiate the presence of any unauthorized military transport vehicles in the Tskhinvali area.”

The statement issued by the Mission on June 12 reads that monitoring was conducted by military observers from the joint peacekeeping forces, composed of members from the Russian, Georgian and Ossetian sides, together with an OSCE Monitoring Officer.

“The OSCE Mission continues to urge maximum restraint in order not to exacerbate the current situation and intensify the political dialogue aimed at the peaceful resolution of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict,” the statement reads.

The Russian and South Ossetian sides also denied Georgian officials allegations of the deployment of extra arms into the conflict zone.

But at a news briefing on June 12, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili kept on criticizing Moscow and described this alleged sending of arms to the self-styled South Ossetian Republic as “an unfriendly move on the part of Russia.”

Saakashvili said that he will speak about the issue with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on June 13.

“We do not need an escalation of the conflict, which separatist forces and some external forces are trying to create,” Saakashvili added.

The Georgian Rustavi 2 television station reported on June 12 that most of the arms delivered from Russia were stationed in the Java district of South Ossetia, outside the capital, Tskhinvali. However, independent confirmation of the report is hardly possible as Georgian reporters are denied entry into the breakaway region by the local de facto authorities of South Ossetia.

Meanwhile, President of the unrecognized South Ossetian Republic Eduard Kokoev, who is visiting the Russian capital, Moscow, said on June 12 that Tskhinvali “suspends all kind of relations” with Tbilisi.

He added that South Ossetia will keep contact with Georgian officials only within the framework of the Joint Control Commission, a quadripartite negotiating body involving Georgian, South Ossetian, Russian and North Ossetian sides. The OSCE Mission to Georgia liaises with the Joint Control Commission (JCC).

The head of the OSCE Mission in Georgia, Ambassador Roy Reeve, said on June 11 that the next meeting of the JCC will be held on June 16, apparently in Vladikavkaz, the capital of the Russian North Ossetian Republic, as the South Ossetian side refuses to arrive in Tbilisi over security concerns.

De facto President of the South Ossetia Eduard Kokoev also made other demands at a news briefing in Moscow on June 12. He demanded that the Georgian Parliament “recognize genocide of the South Ossetian population in 1989-1991.”

“The Georgian side must also compensate for damage done in South Ossetia, worth 34 billion [Russian] rubles, at the exchange rate of 1991,” Kokoev added.

He also called for Russia to recognize South Ossetia’s independence and admit it into the Russian Federation.

The de facto South Ossetian President also denied reports made by Georgian officials regarding the delivering of extra weapons to South Ossetia from Russia.
 
“No weapons or Russian units have entered the territory of South Ossetia. It was humanitarian freight,” Kokoev said.

He accused the Georgian authorities of deliberately destabilizing the situation in the breakaway region. Kokoev described Tbilisi’s humanitarian initiatives in South Ossetia, which include the distribution of agricultural fertilizers and medicines among the local population of the breakaway region, as “a destabilization attempt.”

“Under the pretext of these humanitarian initiatives, officials from Tbilisi are calling for the local population to topple the legally elected President of South Ossetia,” Eduard Kokoev said.

The recent standoff in the conflict zone is a continuation of tensions, which escalated on May 31 when Georgian authorities sent extra units of internal troops into the Tkviavi checkpoint, which lies less than 10 km away from Tskhinvali, under the pretext of fighting smuggling.

The majority of thes extra troops were pulled out on the same day, according to the Georgian officials; however Moscow and Tskhinvali keep insisting on further withdrawal of Georgian troops.