TSKHINVALI. Feb 14 (Interfax-AVN) - The mixed peacekeeping forces in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone are ready to establish additional strong-points in the Pkhvenisi and Nikozi villages for the period of spring field works and opening of unlimited traffic through the Roksky pass, forces commander Major General Vasily Prizemlin told Interfax-Military News Agency on Thursday.
According to him, "the forces have not been able to cut all routes of criminal elements, and that is why additional strong- points manned by servicemen of the Georgian peacekeeping battalion might be established at the site." A strongpoint in the Magvrekisi village has been opened recently with the same goal, the commander said.
He stressed that "both Ossetian and Georgian residents of the conflict zone consider it too early to replace Russian peacekeepers stationed on the territory since 1992 with units of Georgian or South Ossetian law-enforcement agencies." According to him, the local residents are assured that the mixed forces with the backbone of Russian peacekeepers guarantee stability and impossibility to re-launch warfare in the area.
At the same time, a Georgian official said on Thursday that Russian peacekeepers were "too active."
"The local administration opposes the establishment of additional strong-points on the territory," Irakly Bochoridze, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze's envoy to the Shida Kartli region which includes South Ossetia, has said. According to him, the Georgian party insists on demolition of several strong-points recently established in the conflict zone including the one in the Magvrekisi village. "The attempts of Russian peacekeepers to broaden the control zone do not contribute to solution of the region's problems," Bochoridze stressed.
"The position of the Georgian party is unchangeable: the peacekeeping forces should be replaced by those of law- enforcement agencies from Georgia and South Ossetia," Bochoridze went on. At present the peacekeepers maintain 13 permanent and two temporary strong-points.
Each battalion of the forces must comprise 500 servicemen in accordance with an agreement signed in Dagomys in 1992. The Russian battalion is fully manned while the Georgian one is manned by over 60 percent and the Ossetian one by less than 30 percent.