Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili’s first-ever meeting with his ‘counterpart’ from breakaway South Ossetia Mikhail Mindzaev on June 22 failed to bring any tangible results.
The meeting was held in the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali in frames of the quadripartite negotiating body Joint Control Commission (JCC).
Along with chief negotiators from the Georgian, South Ossetian, Russian and Russia’s North Ossetian sides, official from the Russian Interior Ministry Alexander Rostovtsev and Deputy Interior Minister of North Ossetia Soslan Sikoev were also participating in talks.
South Ossetian chief negotiator Boris Chochiev told reporters that the Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili refused to sign a joint protocol, text of which was agreed in advance during the working visit of Georgian Interior Ministry officials in Tskhinvali on June 21.
One of the issues in the protocol concerned re-establishment of the Special Coordination Center (SCC).
The SCC was set up by the JCC in 2001 for enhancing cooperation between the Georgian and Ossetian law enforcement agencies and for a joint policing in the conflict zone in coordination with the Joint Peacekeeping Forces (JPKF). But the SCC has failed to turn into a fully operational body.
South Ossetian chief negotiator Boris Chochiev said that during the talks the Georgian side was pushing for giving the SCC right to operate on entire territory of South Ossetia and not only in the conflict zone.
“But the Georgian side has forgotten that it is a territory of an independent South Ossetia,” Chochiev said.
He also said that the text of protocol also envisaged a monitoring of all the police posts in the conflict zone before July 10 and prohibition of unilaterally setting up of checkpoints without prior agreement with the JCC.
In mid-June the Georgian side has repositioned its police post near to the Ossetian village of Zemo Prisi and also carried out several police operations in the conflict zone, which triggered Russian peacekeepers’ and the South Ossetian side’s protests.
“It seems that the Georgian side was not ready for signing [of protocol],” Mindzaev said, but added that he is anyway satisfied that the meeting took place.
Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili told reporters after the talks that the wording of the document was unacceptable.
“There were absolutely incomprehensible phrases in the protocol. They [the South Ossetian side] wanted through this protocol to portray that as if two equal Ministers have signed the document and as if self-determination of South Ossetia has been again confirmed etc. These kinds of fairy tales make no sense for us. For us important is to provide security to our citizens and we want a person [from the South Ossetian side] who will be responsible for this security. Their answer was that they were ready to agree this issue with the President and then I asked: who is your President; because in the entrance to Tskhinvali I have seen a huge banner reading Putin Our President and I will be really very happy if they manage to agree this issue with Putin,” Merabishvili said.
According to the office of Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues, Merabishvili and Mindzaev could only reach a verbal agreement that the Georgian side will remove its police post near Zemo Prisi, while the South Ossetian side will dismantle its police post near the Georgian village of Avnevi within one week.
After talks Merabishvili visited Georgian-populated areas of the conflict zone and also traveled to a site of construction of a new road connecting Georgian villages by-passing Ossetian-controlled areas.
The South Ossetian side is also constructing a new road via the Ossetian village of Zari, which will enable to link Tskhinvali with the northern part of the breakaway region and with the Roki Tunnel, by-passing the Georgian villages north of Tskhinvali.