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Tbilisi seeks UN mediation to resume Abkhaz talks

Georgia Materials 1 June 2007 16:25 (UTC +04:00)

( Civil Georgia ) - Georgia has called on the UN Secretary General's Group of Friends, involving France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia and the U.S., to persuade Sokhumi to resume UN-mediated talks, known as the Geneva Process.

Abkhazia is refusing to resume talks until the Georgian side has withdrawn its forces and the headquarters of its 'puppet government' - the Abkhaz government-in-exile - from the Tbilisi-controlled upper Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia.

In a statement issued on May 31 the Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues called on the UN Secretary General's Special Representative in Georgia, Jean Arnault, "to take relevant measures as soon as possible" in order to organize a meeting in the Geneva format to discuss the issues of security, return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to the entire territory of Abkhazia and economic rehabilitation.

The statement also says that failure to resume talks hampers the implementation of measures necessary for the protection and monitoring of human rights in the Georgian-populated Gali District of the breakaway region.

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