Peace Negotiations Watch- Volume V, Number 17, July 26, 2006

Breakaway region's fate in limbo as Tbilisi and Moscow tussle for controlSimon Ostrovsky, Agence France Presse, 7/20/06To Radion Gazzayev, the latest rekindling in tensions between Georgia and Russian-backedrebels in South Ossetia has meant the death of his little brother and being forced to use a crutch.Two separate, unsolved explosions targeted separatist officials in the province last week, onekilling the local security council chief, the other two passersby -- Radion's brother Ibrahim andanother teenager.Georgia's parliament on Tuesday followed up the most recent flare-up in violence in thistroubled corner of the Caucasus with a resolution calling for Russian peacekeepers to be replacedby an international force in South Ossetia and in a second rebel Georgian province, Abkhazia.Georgia's pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili is expected to bring up the assembly'sdemands at talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow this weekend. But Ossetianssay Georgia is stirring the violence, including the bomb which exploded in a tree in the center ofTskhinvali, South Ossetia's capital, as Radion and his brother were helping a neighbor loadsmoked fish onto a truck.Shrapnel downed 19-year-old Radion, hitting his arms and piercing a leg while the blast wavethrew Ibrahim into the air killing him a few moments later. "The Georgians did this because theywant Tskhinvali to be theirs," Radion said as he leaned on a crutch at his brother's funeral onMonday. Georgia denies it planted the bombs. The speaker of parliament, Nino Burjanadze,blamed Russian security services and warned of more such "provocation." "There will be seriouscomplications with Russia after the parliament's decision," Burjanadze told AFP, adding that sheexpected Russia to "heat up" the situation in Ossetia to create excuses for the peacekeepers tostay. Burjanadze said that though Ossetians are against the departure of Russian troops, a neutralinternational police force was needed to guarantee the safety of both ethnic-Ossetian andGeorgian living in the conflict zone.Georgia also wants the Russian contingent, which it says acts like an occupying power, to bereplaced by an international force, breaking the uneasy status quo that has held since Tbilisiended its disastrous war with the Ossetians in 1992. "We will not allow Russia to annex theterritories of Georgia and we will use all civilized methods to do this," Georgian ConflictResolution Minister Giorgi Khaindrava told AFP.There is hostility to this among the Ossetians, who say that the Russian presence is the onlyguarantee of continued autonomy from Tbilisi. "What kind of peacekeeping mission do theywant here? Afghan or Iraqi? We don't need any other force besides the Russians," the region'srebel president, Eduard Kokoity told AFP in a recent interview in his office.The latest parliamentary move came amid a backdrop of growing tensions between Russia andits tiny neighbor Georgia, with whom already poor relations further cooled when the USeducatedSaakashvili came to power in 2003. The Organization for Security and Cooperation inEurope, which mediates the conflict, said an escalation followed Russia's closure of the mainroad between Russian and Georgia recently, ostensibly for repairs.