| South Ossetia continues to teeter on the brink of war Yesterday, representatives of the Georgian and South Ossetian sides, with the participation of peacekeepers and OSCE observers, began reconnaissance of the area in the conflict zone. They are going to identify formations that do not have the right to be in this area without a decision of the Joint Control Commission (JCC) and agreement with the command of the Blue Helmets. The purpose of this work is to stop regular night skirmishes that still threaten to escalate into a large-scale war.
Tbilisi sent Chief of the General Staff, Major General Georgiy Iukuridze, to the conflict zone for reconnaissance. “They won’t find our people there, because they aren’t there,” Ibragim Gassiev, deputy minister of defense of the unrecognized republic of South Ossetia, confidently told Vremya Novostei. “Georgians are shooting.” However, Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution Georgy Khaindrava made the exact opposite statement to Vremya Novostey: “Sunday night showed who was disrupting the agreements - the Ossetian side opened fire.”
Tbilisi sees the reason for the breakdown of the agreements, which the parties reached urgently through the mediation of Russian diplomats, in the fact that part of the Ossetian formations do not obey the president of the unrecognized republic, Eduard Kokoity. After Saturday's negotiations, which were held by the ministers of defense and internal affairs of the parties, a joint Russian-Georgian-Ossetian patrol was fired upon from a commanding height on the bypass road around Tskhinvali. The Georgian side was blamed for this. Then Georgian Defense Minister Giorgi Baramidze, who was participating in the patrol, wanting to prove the opposite, gave the order to open artillery fire on the area from which the shelling was coming. Tbilisi claims that Ossetian formations were there.
The chief of police of the Shida Kartli region, Alexander Sukhitashvili, told Vremya Novostei that at least four soldiers of the Georgian battalion of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces (JPKF) were wounded as a result of shelling on the night of August 15. “They staged a performance,” Alan Elbakiev, head of the information service of the President of South Ossetia, remarked to this. - It was the Georgians who fired at the Ossetian villages of Dmenisi and Sarabuki. Our units were silent, observing the order.”
In general, the ceasefire agreements reached last Friday in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone (the President of South Ossetia even proposed to follow the principle of the Olympic Truce) have not yet been implemented. Still, there are some reasons for optimism, as negotiations are being taken to another level. Firstly, the security forces have already entered them. Secondly, the possibility of a personal meeting between Eduard Kokoity and Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania is becoming more and more real.
The head of the Russian delegation, Ambassador at Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lev Mironov spoke about “more constructivism” in the negotiations and even suggested knocking on wood so as not to jinx it. Georgian Interior Minister Irakli Okruashvili has found his own way to contain the situation. “We once again agreed not to renew the fire. But if this agreement is violated and they open fire, I will personally take revenge on each of their soldiers,” the minister told reporters. After this, the Press and Information Committee of South Ossetia issued a statement that now “the political group of Georgian Interior Minister Irakli Okruashvili has the greatest influence on the processes in the zone of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict; it is he who directs all shelling in the conflict zone.”
After agreements on a ceasefire and separation of the parties, Russian peacekeepers, whose mission Georgian parliamentarians demanded to end in a special statement last Friday, received carte blanche for some time. On Sunday, the commander of the JPKF, Major General Svyatoslav Nabzdorov, told Vremya Novostey that “the issue of setting up a trilateral peacekeeper post in the village of Sarabuki is being resolved.” This small Ossetian village (up to ten households) has gained worldwide fame in recent days. Tskhinvali claims that the village is being shelled with mortars by Georgians. Tbilisi says nearby Georgian villages are being shelled from Sarabuki. It was in Sarabuki that a few days ago the chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs and Relations with Compatriots Andrei Kokoshin came under fire. Peacekeepers may also set up checkpoints between the villages of Tamarasheni and Kekhvi to unblock roads and allow civilians to move around safely. Mikhail VIGNANSKY, Tbilisi |
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