TSKHINVALI. April 21 (Interfax-AVN) - The Mixed Control Commission on the Georgian-Ossetian settlement will soon approve the list of organizations whose officials have the right to bear arms.
"By the next session of the Mixed Control Commission that is to take place in the town of Gori on May 14-15, the Georgian and South Ossetian parties are to provide the list of organizations and their officials that need a permission to bear arms," the chief-of-staff of the Mixed Peacekeeping Forces in the Georgian- Ossetian conflict zone, Colonel Gennady Seryshev, told Interfax- Military News Agency on Monday.
"Too many people want to bear arms in the conflict zone and it might cause tensions. There is a need to work out a common stance of the parties and limit the number of armed people in the region," Seryshev said.
He noted that applications coordinated with the interior ministers of the parties should be submitted for the session.
"It is too early to speak about any quotas. Anyway, after the approval of the list by the Mixed Control Commission, peacekeepers will be assigned the mission to control abidance by the document," Seryshev stressed.
According to him, the decision to work out the list was made at a meeting of the commission's co-chairmen that took place in Tskhinvali late last week.
The Mixed Peacekeeping Forces comprising a Russian, a Georgian and an Ossetian battalions were deployed to the Georgian- Ossetian conflict zone in 1992. The number of servicemen stationed at 13 pickets and two checkpoints amounts to about 1,000.