In comments posted on the breakaway republic's official website, South Ossetia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alan Pliyev claimed that instead of helping settle the sovereignty dispute with Tbilisi, the OSCE mission to Georgia "is often making decisions that pave the way for provocative steps by Georgia."
In comments made to visiting officials from Russia's Foreign Ministry, South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity on April 17 likened the activity of the OSCE mission to "that of Georgia's secret services."
South Ossetia forcibly won de facto independence from Georgia in the early 1990s. It has enjoyed privileged ties with Russia ever since.
South Ossetia Cease-Fire
Former Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze (RFE/RL)
'NO OTHER WAY OUT': Georgia's parliament on February 15 called upon the government to review the 1992 agreement that put an end to the war with South Ossetia and secure the withdrawal of all Russian peacekeepers stationed in the separatist republic. Officials in Tbilisi have long accused the Russian soldiers of siding with the separatist forces and posing a threat to Georgia's national security. Russia has protested the Georgian vote, arguing that Tbilisi has no right unilaterally to amend the 1992 peace agreement. Georgia, in turn, says it has the right to do so.
RFE/RL's Georgian Service correspondent Nona Mchedlishvili asked former President EDUARD SHEVARDNADZE, who signed the agreement with his then Russian counterpart, Boris Yeltsin, to comment on the dispute....(more)
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