The meeting that took place in Russia's Embassy in Tbilisi closed late last night. It was attended by Georgia's State Minister for Conflict Settlement Georgy Khaindrava, Ambassador-at-large of the Russian Foreign Ministry Mikhail Mayorov, government officials from North Ossetia/Alania (Russia's autonomous republic in the North Caucasus), and representatives of the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia.
Participants in the working meeting decided to hold the next JCC session in Tbilisi at the beginning of June 2004. The meeting closed with discussion of the agenda of the JCC plenary meeting scheduled for the end of May. The Georgian side submitted detailed proposals with regard to early settlement of the conflict, the Novosti-Georgia news agency reports.
In the course of the meeting, the participants discussed a possibility of a `rose revolution` spillover to Abkhazia and South Ossetia. "We were all satisfied with the statement and assurances made by the Georgian side that such an option is totally out of the question for Georgia's leadership," Mikhail Mayorov emphasized.
"There a difference in these issues. We have developed time-tested negotiating formats and our main objective now is to make these formats work to the best of their capacity," he said.
On his part, Georgia's State Minister for Conflict Settlement Georgy Khaindrava said: "Film-makers do not use the same scenario in different films. Likewise, we do not intend to do it in politics".
"Every issue here requires an individual approach and treatment. The Tskhinvali Region (Tbilisi refrains from calling South Ossetia its own name and chooses to call it by the name of the republic's capital city - Tskhinvali) differs markedly from Adzharia (in contrast to South Ossetia, Adzharia is populated by ethnic Georgians, albeit mostly Muslim). The situation there is entirely different," Mr. Khaindrava pointed out.
On their part, South Ossetian representatives in their comments on the outcome of the meeting focused on security guarantees in the conflict zone.
"I hope, the armed conflict will not start again," head of the South Ossetian delegation, Minister-at-large Boris Chochiyev told journalists. Responding to reporters' questions, he refrained from drawing a parallel between the recent events in Batumi and the current situation in Tskhinvali.
"The Adzharia issue has no bearing whatsoever on the Georgian-Ossetian relations. These are totally different issues," he pointed out.
"We approved a statement on the outcome of the meeting stressing that the parties will continue taking efforts for settling the conflict by peaceful means only, excluding any use of force", underscored Boris Chochiyev.
General Svyatoslav Nabdzorov, acting Commander-in-Chief of the joint peace-keeping force in the zone of conflict, also present at the meeting, told journalists that at the present stage it is premature to consider withdrawal of Russian peace-keepers from the zone of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict.
In the meantime, the police in Abkhazia, the other self-proclaimed republic, have been reinforcing their detachments deployed along the border with Georgia.
A spokesman for the regional police force in Samegrelo (Georgia's administrative district bordering on Abkhazia) said that additional police units had been recently deployed in the Georgian villages of Abkhazia's Gali district.
Georgian law-enforcement officials quote local residents as saying that the authorities of the self-proclaimed republic have been taking these measures to prevent a recurrence of the `Adzharia scenario` in Sukhumi, Abkhazia's capital city.
Neither the UN military advisers nor Russian peace-keepers stationed in the area of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict confirm the information about deployment of additional police units.
After Adzharian ex-leader Aslan Abashidze left Batumi and Georgia instituted direct presidential authority in the autonomy, Georgian officials openly stated that Tbilisi would now take appropriate steps to regain control over Abkhazia.
