MOSCOW. Dec 6 (Interfax-AVN) - Dismantling of the fortifications erected by the conflicting parties in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone in summer will continue.
"In the course of their working Monday meeting, Major General Marat Kulakhmetov, the Joint Peacekeeping Force commander, representative of Georgia Pyotr Goguadze, and Anatoly Barankevich, the defense minister of the self-proclaimed republic of South Ossetia, agreed to continue pulling down the fortifications erected during the summer crisis," Erdni Natyrov, an official of the Joint Peacekeeping Force press service, told Interfax-Military News Agency over the telephone from Tskhinvali.
He added that the meeting took place at a checkpoint in the vicinity of Tamarasheni.
"The dismantling procedures will be observed by Russian peacekeepers," he said.
He also said that as the situation at the Tskhinvali by-pass road is stable, the Joint Peacekeeping Force checkpoint there is replaced with a mobile patrol following an order of the force commander. "However, the checkpoints of peacekeepers at northern suburbs of Tskhinvali and in Tamarasheni, from where reports of uncontrolled shooting were received, will remain in place," he added.
The demilitarization of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone is underway in compliance with the agreement reached at the November 5 meeting of Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania and South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity in Sochi.