PEACE PLAN FOR SOUTH-OSSETIAN CONFLICT RESOLUTION

C O N F I D E N T I A L TBILISI 003199

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/03/2015
TAGS: PGOV PREL GG
SUBJECT: PEACE PLAN FOR SOUTH-OSSETIAN CONFLICT RESOLUTION

Classified By: Ambassador John F. Tefft for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) In a November 30 meeting with Poloff, Deputy State
Minister for Conflict Resolution Volski passed a copy of a
non-paper on South Ossetia being prepared by the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs. The paper aims to demonstrate how the
current peace plan is a logical outgrowth of President
Saakashvili's presentation at the 2004 UN General Assembly.
It notes the inability of the current Joint Control
Commission (JCC) format to achieve resolution of the
conflict. (Note: To Poloff, Volski said Georgians want to
broaden the JCC to strengthen it, not destroy it. End note.)
The non-paper asks for U.S. support for:

-- Georgia's ongoing democratic transformation.
-- Georgia's territorial integrity and its role in regional
security.
-- The peace plan and its implementation including greater
involvement of the U.S. and international community.
-- In closing, it asks the U.S. to urge Russia to support the
peace plan and cooperate constructively with Georgia.


2. (SBU) Begin Text:

The Government of Georgia has developed a peace plan aiming
at full-scale political settlement of South-Ossetian conflict
in Georgia. The end goal of this process is full
reintegration of the region into Georgia. The success of
this process will create a model for resolving frozen
conflicts and establishing lasting peace and stability in the
Caucasus and the wider region. For the last two years
Georgia has already played the role of a model and helped
advancing democracy in post-Soviet space.


2. (SBU) Georgian government has proved its commitment to
the peaceful resolution of the conflict through its
consistent steps taken in the course of this year:

-- The main principles of Georgian vision of the conflict
resolution were outlined by the President at the
Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg on 26 January this year.

-- The principles of the Strasbourg initiative were further
developed during the international conference in Batumi on 10
July setting the main priorities for the conflict resolution.

-- In his speech at UNGA President of Georgia reaffirmed
Georgia's commitment for the peaceful resolution and
identified specific areas of the peace process:
demilitarization and confidence building measures; economic,
social rehabilitation of the region; full-scale political
settlement based on determination of political status.

-- On 27 October at the OSCE PC the Prime Minister of Georgia
presented a comprehensive time-related Peace Plan providing
specific measures and steps designed to accomplish the main
objectives of the Georgian Government's peace initiative.


3. (SBU) The Georgian initiative is stimulated by the fact
that the existing format is inadequate to the goal of
conflict resolution and in reality serves as a tool for
keeping the status quo of the frozen conflict. Georgian
Government believes that without full-scale settlement, the
frozen conflicts represent a threat to stability, preclude
social and economic development and cause continued human
suffering.


4. (SBU) Success of the peace plan and overall peace process
will be determined by more constructive involvement of the
Russian Federation, greater role of the United States and
European Union and more effective participation of OSCE and
other international organizations.


5. (SBU) Georgia would like the U.S. to support:

-- Ongoing democratic transformation in Georgia;
-- Georgia's territorial integrity and its role for the
regional stability;
-- The Peace Plan and its implementation envisages greater
involvement of the U.S. and international community.


6. (SBU) Georgia would like the U.S. to urge Russia to
support the Peace Plan and cooperate constructively in
Georgia.

End text.

TEFFT