TSKHINVALI. June 2 (Interfax-AVN) - Establishment of the regular armed forces in the unrecognized republic of South Ossetia is to be completed this year.
"The decision to create effective armed forces of the republic was made in autumn last year, and their establishment will be completed before the end of 2003," South Ossetian parliament chairman Stanislav Kochiyev told Interfax-Military News Agency on Monday.
According to him, "it will be a professional army numbering up to 6,000 contracted soldiers."
Kochiyev refused to speak about the army in detail, stressing that "motorized rifle forces will constitute its core."
Selection of candidates for military service has taken place in volunteer units formed during the 1989-1992 conflict with Georgia.
"In addition, a large number of men were recruited among the reservists mobilized last September in connection with pressing Chechen guerillas out of the Pankisi gorge and their probable penetration into South Ossetia," Kochiyev said.
South Ossetia has only one combat-ready unit - the battalion included in the Mixed Peacekeeping Forces in the Georgian- Ossetian conflict zone, which is maintained with the help of North Ossetia.