VZCZCXRO5516
OO RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHSI #0436/01 0641407
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 051407Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY TBILISI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5543
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TBILISI 000436 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR DAS BRYZA AND EUR/CARC 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/02/2017 
TAGS: PREL PGOV GG
SUBJECT: OSCE SAYS THERE IS AGREEMENT TO INFORMAL JCC MARCH 
20-23 IN ISTANBUL 
 
 
Classified By: AMBASSADOR JOHN F. TEFFT.  REASONS:  1.4 (B) AND (D). 
 
¶1. (C)  Summary:  Ambassador Tefft called on OSCE Ambassador 
Roy Reeve February 28 to discuss South Ossetia.  On the Joint 
Control Commission (JCC), Ambassador said that the U.S. is 
pressing the Georgians to agree to the JCC.  Reeve said that 
there were some positive signals that a JCC meeting would 
take place.  (Note:  In a March 2 telcon, Deputy Nikolaev 
confirmed that the sides had just agreed to an informal 
meeting of the JCC on March 20-23 in Istanbul.  End note.) 
On Sanakoyev, Ambassador said that the U.S. believes that the 
longer we wait to meet him, the harder it will become.  Reeve 
supported the idea of Ambassadors meeting Sanakoyev but 
stressed that he would have no formal contact.  Reeve 
welcomed the Georgian agreement to allow police cooperation 
in South Ossetia and offered other ideas on what the 
Georgians could do to move forward on conflict resolution. 
On elections, Reeve said the OSCE group would meet soon to 
start planning for the 2008 Presidential and Parliamentary 
elections.  End summary. 
 
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JCC ON? 
------- 
 
¶2. (C) Ambassador Tefft called on OSCE Ambassador Roy Reeve 
February 28 to discuss South Ossetia.  Ambassador told Reeve 
that the U.S. is pressing the Georgians to agree to a meeting 
of the Joint Control Commission (JCC), even as they press for 
the use of new formats.  Reeve thanked him for the 
intervention and said that there were some positive signals 
that a JCC meeting would take place.  (Note:  In a March 2 
telcon, Deputy Nikolaev confirmed that the sides agreed to an 
informal JCC on March 20-23 in Istanbul, possibly followed by 
a formal JCC.  End note.)  Reeve said that both sides were to 
blame for the failure to agree on a date earlier and that the 
Georgian and South Ossetian Co-Chairs had been in discussions 
about a new date. 
 
¶3. (C) Reeve argued for continued use of the JCC, which he 
said is needed for technical reasons, such as getting a 
checkpoint at Didi Gupta.  He thought that the Georgians 
could use agreement to work in the JCC to achieve their 
objective of having more bilateral contacts with the South 
Ossetians.  He pointed to the fact that there are other 
mechanisms that are not being used, such as the Authorized 
Delegations (AD), which the Georgians could advocate to 
re-start.  When asked whether Russia would agree, Reeve 
assessed that an invitation to a re-start meetings of ADs, 
coupled with agreement to attend the JCC, would be something 
that the Russians could not reasonably refuse. 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
REEVE RULES OUT FORMAL CONTACT WITH SANAKOYEV 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (C) Turning to the de facto leader Sanakoyev, Ambassador 
said that the U.S. believes that the international community 
should not confer more legitimacy on one de facto leader over 
another.  He briefed on his approach to the British, French, 
German and EU Ambassadors, noting the need to think about how 
to manage the issue of meeting Sanakoyev, who is gaining 
traction in South Ossetia.  He offered the idea of signaling 
to the MFA that they could hold a meeting where Sanakoyev is 
present.  While acknowledging OSCE concerns, Ambassador said 
that the U.S. concern is that the longer we wait to meet with 
him, the harder it will become. 
 
¶5. (C) Reeve agreed that Sanakoyev is a factor but thought 
that the Georgians need to back off from overt support and 
let Sanakoyev stand on his own.  Reeve said that he could not 
meet with Sanakoyev on a political level (although he did not 
explain why) but acknowledged that some of the OSCE's Donors' 
Economic Rehabilitation Projects will take place in areas 
controlled by Sanakoyev and he did not rule out a chance 
meeting with someone from Sanakoyev's team at "the opening of 
some school or clinic."  He stressed, however, that he would 
abstain from formal contact.  He noted with interest that the 
Tedeyev brothers, who are linked to the St. Petersberg Tambor 
mafia and who had been instrumental in Kokoity's rise to the 
de facto presidency, had switched sides and now worked for 
Sanakoyev. 
 
------------------------------------- 
GEORGIANS AGREE TO POLICE COOPERATION 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (C) Reeve turned to his highest priority in South Ossetia: 
 reconstruction of the law enforcement agencies, which he 
believes is the key to the withdrawal of the Joint 
 
TBILISI 00000436  002 OF 002 
 
 
Peacekeeping Force (JPKF).  If you can get the two forces 
together with international monitors, he said, then the 
question arises of why you need the JPKF.  He welcomed MOIA 
Merabishvili's recent agreement to allow police cooperation 
between Georgian and South Ossetians, including allowing a 
needs assessment of the South Ossetian militia.  He said that 
Merabishvili understood that there would need to be a police 
force in South Ossetia. 
 
¶7. (C) When asked what more the Georgians could do, Reeve 
said that the Georgians could remove the military police from 
the Zone of Conflict.  He said that with the Georgian 
battalion (almost at 500 people) and Georgian police, there 
is no role for military police.  He claimed that they are an 
irritant to the situation.  He also suggested that the 
Georgian Government issue and publicize a clear set of rules 
on what goods can be transported to the Zone of Conflict. 
The lack of clear guidelines, he said simply, fuels 
corruption.  In a follow-up phone call with Poloff, OSCE 
offered to come up with a list of items that could be raised 
with the Georgian Government. 
 
---------------------------- 
ELECTIONS GROUP TO MEET SOON 
---------------------------- 
 
¶8. (C) Ambassador raised the issue of preparing for the 2008 
Presidential and Parliamentary elections.  Reeve said that 
the OSCE elections group was going to call a meeting soon and 
agreed to work on a list of agreed recommended steps the 
group could use with the Government. 
TEFFT