Politico-military dimension

Conflict settlement

The Georgian-Ossetian conflict

Peaceful resolution of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict is a primary focus for the Mission. Since 1992, the Mission has been actively promoting negotiations between the conflicting parties. The Mission is a participant of the Joint Control Commission (JCC) co-chaired by the Georgian, Russian Federation, North Ossetian and South Ossetian sides.

Focusing on the need to resolve the conflict through exclusively peaceful means and on the urgency to remove unauthorized units from the zone of conflict, the Mission:

• promotes, in co-operation with the Joint Peacekeeping Forces (JPKF), the cease-fire brokered in mid-August 2004 by the JCC and the subsequent demilitarization of the zone of conflict;
• engages actively in JCC meetings aimed at sustaining the political process of peaceful resolution and at preventing renewed violence;
•  promotes confidence between sides in order to defuse tension;
• produces, together with the four sides involved in the conflict, concept papers that propose ways of moving forward the political process;
• co-ordinates a 2.5 million EUR programme for the rehabilitation of the conflict zone and for the return of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs); the programme is funded by the European Commission and aims to build confidence and foster transparency and market economy practices;
• supports the official JCC newsletter aimed at promoting objective and transparent accounts of JCC's work.

The Tskhinvali field office

The Mission's permanent field office in Tskhinvali facilitates the Mission's efforts to sustain the negotiation process by organizing and hosting meetings and consultations at different levels, including those connected with activities of the JCC and of the Steering Committee on economic rehabilitation.

The Field Office provides an operational base for the Mission's monitoring and support activities of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces. It also serves as focal point for diplomats and international media.

The rehabilitation programme in the zone of conflict

The Mission has been co-ordinating a 2.5 million EUR programme for reconstruction of infrastructure and utilities for the return of refugees and of internally displaced persons. The 2.5 million EUR grant was awarded by the European Commission. The Mission chairs the programme's Steering Committee that includes representatives of all sides to the conflict. In addition to supporting rehabilitation, the programme promotes confidence-building and market economy practices.

To date the following components of the programme are underway:

• Rehabilitation of the gas distribution network Gas distribution network in Tskhinvali (EUR 70,000)
• Rehabilitation of the water distribution system in Tskhinvali (EUR 80,000)
• Supply and installation of electricity meters, transformers and pillars in Tskhinvali (EUR 80,000)
• Construction of a garbage processing plant (EUR 80,000)
• Rehabilitation of the water pump station in Kemereti village (EUR 35,000)
• Rehabilitation of the Edisi-Tskhinvali water pipeline (EUR 60,000)
• Connection of the villages of Avnevi, Tamarasheni and Kekhvi to the gas distribution network (EUR 180,000)
• Completion of the hydropower station of Edisi (EUR 510,000)
• Improvement of the territory and rehabilitation of the heating system of two Georgian schools in Tamarasheni and Kekhvi, and two Ossetian schools in Java (EUR 69,907)

The Georgian -Abkhaz conflict

The Mission provides support to the United Nations-led peace process through participation in the settlement of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict within the framework of regular meetings of the Co-ordinating Council and regular liaison with the UN Observer Mission in Georgia. The OSCE Mission follows events in Abkhazia, but unlike the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, it does not monitor the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Peacekeeping Forces in the Abkhaz zone of conflict nor the observance of the cease-fire agreement.

Monitoring of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces (JPKF) activities in the zone of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict

Military monitoring

One of the core tasks of the Mission is to monitor the Joint Peacekeeping Forces (JPKF) in the zone of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict. OSCE Mission Monitoring Officers (MMOs) accompany JPKF monitoring patrols in the zone of conflict. MMOs also patrol independently and liaise with local military and civilian authorities.

In August 2004, the Mission's MMOs set up an observation post at the junction of strategic roads in the zone of conflict. From this so-called Pauk (Russian for 'Spider'), the MMOs observed and reported developments on the ground until bad weather caused the activity to be suspended. This verification of developments by an independent presence is important for confidence building.

Voluntary handover of arms and ammunition

The Mission started by supporting the JPKF programme of voluntary handover of arms and ammunition when it began in 2000. Since 2002, the programme has been run entirely by the Mission with financing provided through the OSCE Voluntary Fund for the destruction of surplus military stockpiles. Within the framework of this initiative, communities undertake to hand over weapons to the OSCE in return for advice, logistical back-up and financing for small-scale projects of direct benefit to them. An example of such a project is the refurbishment of the derelict Avnevi out-patient centre. After completion of its refurbishment in June 2004, the centre re-started to provide out-patient facilities and ambulance assistance. Similar small-scale projects in Tskhinvali and the neighbouring area included road and canal repair, furnishing of schools, computer donations to schools and provision of nursery facilities.

At the end of April 2004 engineers of the Russian battalion of the JPKF destroyed in the presence of representatives of the Georgian and South Ossetian sides, representatives of accredited embassies and of the media, all the weapons and ammunition that had been collected.

Police co-ordination

The Mission to Georgia works closely with OSCE's specialized Strategic Police Matters Unit to help Georgia with its police reform programme. With the expertise of 55 States at its disposal, the OSCE is in a strong position to offer assistance in areas like community policing, police training, personnel management, and overall police reform, as well as codes of conduct and international standards.

Needs assessment and formulation of an OSCE police assistance programme for Georgia

In October 2004 the Mission signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Georgia for an in-depth needs assessment and the formulation of an OSCE police assistance programme for the Georgian police force. The two-month needs assessment study was carried out by teams of local and international experts. The recommendations of the study serves as basis for the formulation of the OSCE police assistance programme.

Proposals for the programme focus on four themes for OSCE assistance:

• formulating a vision, values and objectives for the reform of policing in Georgia and creating a strategic plan to deliver these objectives;
• strengthening the Minister of Interior's personnel management system;
• developing a new concept/model for basic police training;
• introducing modern community policing concepts.

Combating terrorism

In response to OSCE Chairmanship's proposal to prioritise anti-terrorism measures, the Mission assists the Government in implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1373 and the Universal Conventions and Protocols on Anti-terrorism. By autumn 2004 Georgia had ratified 9 out of the 12 conventions. In November 2004, the Mission together with OSCE's Action against Terrorism Unit (ATU) and with UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) organized a workshop in Tbilisi to discuss the ratification and implementation of these conventions and protocols.

Mission assistance focuses on building counter-terrorist capacity. The Mission supports the strengthening of co-operation among departments of different Georgian state agencies and international and regional organizations involved in combating terrorism. An important co-operation component supported by the Mission is the development of a common system for gathering, analysing, storing and retrieving information about convicted or suspected terrorists and criminals.

The Mission assists the Georgian anti-terrorism structures by providing examples of 'best practice' in countering terrorism compiled from the experience of the OSCE participating States.

The Mission facilitates the participation of Georgian officials to key international workshops and conferences such as those on man-portable air defence systems, travel document security, border management, and strategies to combat illicit trafficking and criminal use of chemical, biological radiological and nuclear substances and weapons.

OSCE Voluntary Fund for the destruction of surplus military stockpiles

Stockpiles of munitions, in whatever condition, are a lethal hazard and might become a source of materials for terrorists. The Mission is co-ordinating projects to recycle and destroy military stockpiles and to neutralize dangerous chemicals. These projects have two major goals, to support OSCE participating States' commitment to combat terrorism as well as to address environmental threats to security. The projects are funded through OSCE's Voluntary Fund.

The OSCE Voluntary Fund was established following agreements on the withdrawal from military bases once belonging to the Soviet forces, of Russian forces and equipment. The agreements have been reached by Georgia and the Russian Federation during the 1999 OSCE Istanbul Summit. The United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Turkey were the first to contribute to the Fund, which was first used to implement a project for the neutralization of 400 tons of the Liquid Missile Fuel Component (Melange) in Western Georgia. The project to support the transformation of fuel into fertilizer was completed in June 2002.

Recycling and destroying tons of unviable munitions remaining in abandoned Soviet bases

Recycling stockpiles

With the balance of funds remaining from the Melange Project, the Mission completed in June 2003 the first stage of a project for the recycling and destruction of stockpiles of ammunition and bombs from military bases once belonging to the Soviet forces in Georgia.

With contributions made by Finland, Germany and the UK, the second stage of the project was finalized in June 2004. In this second phase, the buildings and equipment of the Recycling and Destruction Centre have been repaired and improved. Large quantities of munitions were transported to the Centre from other bases. Several hundred tons of unstable and damaged bombs, missiles, cluster bomb packs and shells were destroyed.

Neutralization of dangerous chemicals

In October 2003, the Mission started a new project to neutralize dangerous chemicals stored in military bases that had belonged to Soviet forces in Georgia. The project, financed from the same Voluntary Fund, will also rehabilitate polluted lands in the Akhalkalaki and Akhaltsikhe areas and render them suitable for agricultural use. The UK, Germany and Italy are funding the project.

There are ongoing activities of this project that reduce the toxic-waste pollution caused by the dumping of petrol, oil and lubricants, and by remains of spent munitions contaminating the land of these military bases. In 2004, the Mission oversaw the neutralization of approximately 60 tons of collected dangerous chemicals including solidified remains of napalm.

The process of decontamination of land was started after a thorough assessment of the extent and nature of contamination of designated sites, and after the clearance of remains of exploded ordnance and chemical debris.