US embassy cable - 05TBILISI3199

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, South Ossetia 
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