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UN presses Georgia, breakaway Abkhazia, to talk
Gazeta.ruThe Security Council on Friday lamented the lack of progress toward an agreement between Georgia and breakaway Abkhazia on the region's future status and urged both sides to work for a peaceful settlement. "The process of negotiation leading to a lasting political settlement acceptable to both sides will require concessions from both sides," a resolution adopted unanimously by the 15-nation U.N. council said. The measure also urged leaders on both sides to refrain from militant rhetoric and support for military action as a way to resolve their differences. Georgia has been divided since Abkhazia declared independence in 1991 and drove out the Georgian government two years later in a civil war that killed some 10,000 people. A U.N. peacekeeping mission of 122 soldiers, deployed in 1993, works with a predominantly Russian force to patrol the separation line between Abkhazia and the rest of the country. The Security Council resolution extended the mandate of the U.N. force an additional six months, until July 31. There has been no progress on a peace deal defining Abkhazia's future political status despite 28 Security Council resolutions prodding the two sides to come to an agreement. But Malkhaz Kakabadze, Georgian minister for special affairs, told the council earlier this week that Sunday's inauguration of Mikhail Saakashvili as Georgia's new president left him optimistic that progress would be made in talks in Geneva next month on Abkhazia's future status. Kakabadze accused the Abkhaz leadership of turning the peace process "into a hostage of the separatist regime." The Security Council in the past has faulted Abkhazia for balking at negotiations. But he said the Georgian government was encouraged by expressions of support from Russian President Vladimir Putin for Saakashvili and for a resolution of the Abkhaz problem.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2004-02-01 |
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