(civil.ge) UN Security Council adopted on October 13 a resolution on Abkhazia calling on Georgia to refrain from provocative actions, especially in upper Kodori Gorge and noting the Russian peacekeeping troops' important stabilizing role in the Abkhaz conflict zone.
The resolution has also extended a mandate of the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) for six months, before April 15, 2007, reports Trend.
Although Georgia's Ambassador to the UN Irakli Alasania hailed extension of the UNOMIG mandate, but noted at a news conference in New York that the resolution does not reflect a failure of the Russian peacekeeping forces, which are stationed in Abkhazia under the CIS aegis, to fulfill their duties.
He also said that the resolution makes too much focus on the Tbilisi's moves towards upper Kodori Gorge, which is surprising. Georgia sent troops to upper Kodori in late July, cracked down on militias there and fully restored the central authorities control over this area of breakaway region. The move was condemned by Sokhumi and Moscow as provocative.
The UN Security Council resolution reads that a new and tense situation has emerged between the Georgian and the Abkhaz sides, in particular as a result of the Georgian special operation in the upper Kodori Valley.
The resolution expresses concern over the actions of the Georgian side in the Kodori Valley in July and urges the Georgian side to address seriously legitimate Abkhaz security concerns, to avoid steps which could be seen as threatening and to refrain from militant rhetoric.
Georgia's UN Ambassador Irakli Alasania said that the police operation in upper Kodori was needed to restore order and security to let the UN Observers monitor the area as it is envisaged by the 1994 Moscow agreement. The monitoring was suspended in June 2003, when UN observers and their interpreter were kidnapped by gunmen while patrolling the gorge.
A joint patrol of the Russian peacekeepers and UN observers monitored the gorge on October 12 and found some 550-strong Georgian police force. Presence of the Defense Ministry troops is banned by the 1994 Moscow agreement in the upper Kodori Gorge.
The UN Security Council resolution also reaffirms the commitment to the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Georgia within its internationally recognized borders and again expresses support towards the principles contained in the Paper on Basic Principles for the Distribution of Competencies between Tbilisi and Sukhumi. This so called so-called Boden Document envisages broad autonomy of Abkhazia within Georgia.
The resolution also calls for a highest-level meeting between the conflicting sides without preconditions and to finalize documents on the non-use of violence and on the return of refugees and internally displaced persons for the Gali district. In his addressing to the UN General Assembly Session on September 22, President Saakashvili made it clear that Tbilisi will sign the agreement on non-resumption of hostilities only after the Russian peacekeeping forces are replaced in the conflict zone by the multinational police force.
The resolution also calls on the Abkhaz side to address seriously the need for a dignified return of IDPs and refugees, including their security and human rights concerns and to agree on deployment of the UN police component in the Gali district of breakaway Abkhazia.
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