Giorgi Khaindrava was fired Friday morning. He had been responsible for the problems of refugees as a cochairman of the Joint Control Commission for the resolution of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict.
"The dismissal of State Minister for Conflict Resolution Khaindrava was not unexpected. It is a link of one chain designed by the Georgian authorities," said Boris Chochiyev, first deputy prime minister in South Ossetia and a co-chairman of the trilateral Joint Control Commission of Russia, South Ossetia and Georgia.
Commenting on the chain of events, he cited a July 14 bomb attack in Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, when an explosive device detonated outside the house of a member of parliament of the unrecognized republic, killing two and injuring three people.
Chochiyev also referred to a Georgian parliamentary resolution adopted Tuesday that called for the replacement of Russian peacekeepers in Georgia's two conflict zones with international contingents, and then mentioned Khaindrava's dismissal.
"Although we had heated debates with him [Khaindrava], nobody in South Ossetia ever doubted that Khaindrava was against a military resolution of the conflict," Chochiyev said.
He continued that in Georgia "those who fail to share the authorities' policy have to leave."
"It is a shame that people favoring military action are better respected by Georgian Defense Minister Irakly Okruashvili than people like Khaindrava," Chochiyev concluded.
