TBILISI, May 31 (RIA Novosti) - The Georgian state minister for conflict resolution issues Wednesday protested the rotation of Russian peacekeepers in the Caucasian country's breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions.
"As the Georgian state minister for conflict resolution issues and the cochairman of the Joint Control Commission (JCC) I express a categorical protest against the illegal actions of the CIS collective peacekeeping contingents and demand an immediate explanation from their commanders," Giorgi Khaindrava said in a statement.
"Otherwise, as a Georgian commander of peacekeeping operations, I would raise the issue of questioning the further presence of Russian peacekeeping contingents in Georgia," he said
Khaindrava said Russian peacekeepers were using two officially closed sectors, the Roksky tunnel (on the border between South and North Ossetia) and the Psou River (between Russia and Abkhazia) to conduct the rotation.
"An unscrupulous violation of Georgian legislation and the principles of interstate relations on the part of the Russian military, and also forcible actions against the law-enforcement bodies of a sovereign state that attempted to stop an aggressive violation of law have brought the situation to the brink of a military conflict," Khaindrava said.
But Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Wednesday that the rotation that had enraged the Georgian leadership would continue despite Georgia's warnings.
"Rotation of peacekeepers is held once every six months and we have no plans to cancel it," said Ivanov, who is also a deputy prime minister. "It has been and will be held through the Roksky tunnel."
Ivanov also said that Georgia rotated its peacekeeping contingent more often than Russia.
A Russian peacekeeping battalion has been stationed in South Ossetia since an end to fighting in the early 1990s after the region tried to secede from Georgia.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry said last week that the current rotation had not been coordinated with the Georgian co-chairman of the JCC - the body comprising Georgia, South Ossetia and Russia that is attempting to find a solution to the conflict - and that Russia was stalling on talks over visas for its peacekeepers.
