S.Ossetia Quiet, as Tbilisi Tries to Show its Peaceful Intentions

With the recent row over rotation of the Georgian peacekeeping battalion in the South Ossetian conflict zone already solved, Tbilisi and Moscow further exchanged diplomatic barbs over a session of Joint Control Commission (JCC), which was held in Moscow on February 20 without the participation of the Georgian negotiators. Officials in Tbilisi were also irritated by a recent, as they put it, “Russian media fury” over the situation in breakaway South Ossetia.

The Georgian side rotated its peacekeepers in the conflict zone on February 20 and currently there are 330 Georgian servicemen serving as part of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces (JPKF). The Georgian side can further contribute manpower, as agreements allow for each side to station up to 500 servicemen in the conflict zone. Tbilisi also announced that it will regularly rotate its peacekeepers in the region every three months.

Initially, the South Ossetian side prevented this rotation on February 19, citing that it was unscheduled and was in violation of agreements, which say that rotations should be carried out once every six months. In response, the Georgian side blocked roads to the breakaway region’s capital Tskhinvali, both from the north and the south.

The issue was discussed at the session of the Joint Control Commission in Moscow on February 20. During this session – which was attended only by negotiators from Russia, South Ossetia and North Ossetia – the participating sides decided, as the Russian Foreign Ministry put it, “to show good will” and give the go-ahead for the rotation of the Georgian peacekeepers. In response, the Georgian side reopened the main road in the region.
 
Tbilisi condemned this session of the JCC and criticized this negotiating arrangement as unfair. Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze said on February 20 that on February 17 Giorgi Khaindrava, the Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues who represents the Georgian side in the JCC, was officially notified by the Russian side about the JCC session in Moscow, “however the date of this session was not specified.”

“There are only two sides – Russian and Georgian [in the JCC]. One side, which includes Russian, South Ossetian and North Ossetian [negotiators], gathered in Moscow, while the other side – the Georgian one – was not participating in it… This should be one more confirmation for the international community that all our complaints [against the JCC] are absolute fair. I categorically urge our friends [partner states] not to let this fact lay without a proper reaction,” Nino Burjanadze said while speaking at a session of the Parliamentary Bureau.

But the Russian side downplayed the absence of the Georgian negotiators and said that this recent JCC session was “a consultation.”

“This is part of Russia’s shuttle diplomacy… If previously we were traveling between Tbilisi and Tskhinvali, now the [representatives of the] parties involved themselves came to Moscow,” Russian chief negotiator for the South Ossetian conflict Valery Kenyaikin told reporters on February 20. Georgian State Minister Giorgi Khaindrava visited Moscow on February 16-17 and held talks with Russian officials from the Foreign Ministry.

But Russia did criticized the OSCE for not sending representatives to the JCC session in Moscow. “[Representatives of the OSCE] expelled themselves, at this stage, from ongoing intensive work within frames of the JCC over normalization of the tense situation [in South Ossetia],” the Russian Foreign Ministry stated on February 20.

Meanwhile, the Georgian authorities are trying to offset recent allegations by the Russian media that Tbilisi is preparing for a resumption of hostilities in South Ossetia.
 
On the “Sunday Evening” political talk show, aired on Russia’s NTV television station, Russian MP Konstantin Zatulin, who heads the CIS Institute, said that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is trying to fuel tensions in South Ossetia in an attempt to overshadow economic and social difficulties in the country.

The Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta also wrote on February 20 that a war in South Ossetia “would help the Georgian leadership to distract public attention from a growing number of social problems.”
 
Gleb Pavlovsky, a Kremlin insider and head of the consultancy group Effective Politics Foundation, said while speaking on his political talk show “Real Politics” on NTV said on February 18 that “the price of one bullet is much less than massive bloodshed in the conflict zone.”
 
This statement by the Kremlin insider was described by Georgian Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze as “a call for a masterminding of a terrorist act” against the Georgian President.
 
The Georgian Foreign Ministry said in an information note on February 20 that the statement by Gleb Pavlovsky “can be qualified only as a usage of elements of terrorism in interstate relations.”

“The method of murder propagated by Mr. Pavlovsky is perilous, provocative and requires an instant and strict reaction on the part of the international community,” the Georgian Foreign Ministry stated.

In an attempt to show its peaceful intentions, especially after a strong-worded February 15 resolution passed by the Georgian Parliament on the Russian peacekeepers, the Georgian government announced a launch of measures aimed at a “unilateral demilitarization” of the conflict zone and a defusing tensions in the region.

The list of these measures, which includes the withdrawal of part of the Military Police units from the conflict zone and incorporation of another part into the Georgian peacekeeping battalion, were posted on the Georgian Foreign Ministry’s web-site on February 20.