Tbilisi Calls for Restraint in Hostage-Taking Crisis

Breakaway South Ossetian Deputy Special Affairs Minister, who was kidnapped on January 22, was released later on the same day; however situation in the conflict zone remains tense as one Georgia policeman and several Ossetians are still kept in hostage by the conflicting sides.

Reports say that special session of the quadripartite Joint Control Commission (JCC), involving representatives of the Georgian, Russian, South Ossetian and Russia’s North Ossetian sides, will be held on January 24 in Tskhinvali to discuss recent tensions in the conflict zone.

Georgian officials say Tbilisi shows “restraint” in this hostage-taking crisis on the eve of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s planned address to the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe scheduled for January 26, when he will unveil details of Tbilisi’s proposal over the South Ossetian conflict resolution.

“We try not to strain situation, especially against the background of planned address of President Saakashvili, who intends to unveil South Ossetian peace plan,” Vano Merabishvili, the Georgian Interior Minister, said at a news conference on January 23.

Recent tensions, involving series of kidnappings organized by the both sides, broke out in the conflict zone on January 19, when the Georgian police arrested Oleg Pukhaev, an Ossetian, who is accused for alleged murder of two persons in the Georgian village of Tamarasheni in the conflict zone last February.

Following this arrest, two Georgian policemen – Gocha Gvimradze and Lado Chalauri, the latter is the chief of police in the Eredvi village in the conflict zone, were kidnapped on January 20, allegedly by the relatives of arrested Ossetian Oleg Pukhaev. As a result of talks between the Georgian and South Ossetian sides, Gocha Gvimradze was released on January 20, however chief of Eredvi police Chalauri still remains under detention in the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali.

On January 22, reportedly the relatives and co-villagers of Lado Chalauri kidnapped 12 ethnic Ossetians, including Deputy Special Affairs Minister of breakaway South Ossetia Makhar Gasiyev, who was released on the same day, but other 11 Ossetians still remains in hostage.

Maj.Gen. Marat Kulakhmetov, the Commander of the Russian peacekeeping battalion deployed in the conflict zone, met with the relatives and co-villagers of Chalauri on January 23. They are rallying in the conflict zone, near Tskhinvali demanding Chalauri’s immediate release. At the meeting Maj.Gen. Marat Kulakhmetov articulated the South Ossetian side’s position, which involves exchange of all Ossetian detainees, including Oleg Pukhaev into the Georgian policeman.

However, Tbilisi refuses to exchange, as the Georgian officials put it, “policeman into criminal” and offer Tskhinvali to hold a joint investigation of murder case, in which allegedly Pukhaev was involved.

“We will welcome representatives from the South Ossetian de facto authorities, as well as representatives from the international organizations, including OSCE, to participate in the investigation process. We are interested to carry out transparent investigation,” Giorgi Volsky, the Georgian Deputy State Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues, said at a news conference on January 23.

At a session of the Georgian National Security Council on January 22 President Mikheil Saakashvili commented regarding the hostage-taking crisis in breakaway South Ossetia and said that Georgia should “avoid provocations” in the conflict zone. He also questioned effectiveness of the Russian peacekeeping troops deployed in the conflict zone.

“We do not need confrontation; we do not need destabilization… But exchange of criminals into [police] officials is absolutely inadmissible for us,” Mikheil Saakashvili said.

“I want also to talk about the role of the Russian peacekeepers in the conflict zone. [The Georgian] hostage was kidnapped just in front of the Russian peacekeepers’ [checkpoint]. There is a question: Russian peacekeepers are deployed there in order to secure stability, or to trigger destabilization?” the Georgian President said.

He also said that the National Security Council meeting was convened to discuss the South Ossetian peace plan, which he intends to unveil on January 26 at the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe in Strasbourg.

It seems that during his address President Saakashvili will mainly focus on South Ossetian conflict resolution and outline only, as he said, “certain aspects of Abkhazia peace plan.”