Sep 26, 2006

Abkhazia: UN Asked to Urge Georgia to Honor Effective Agreements


Foreign Ministry of the unrecognized Republic of Abkhazia has asked the UN to give a fair assessment to Georgian President speech at the last session of the UN General Assembly.

SUKHUMI, September 25 (Itar-Tass) - Foreign Ministry of the unrecognized Republic of Abkhazia has asked the United Nations to give an unbiased assessment to Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's speech at the 61st session of the UN General Assembly and to urge the Georgian authorities to honor the effective agreements and obligations.

A statement the Foreign Ministry issued here Monday says: "Abkhazia asks the UN to demand that Georgia honor Clause 2.4 of the Moscow agreement and begin an immediate withdrawal of its armed units from the upper part of the Kodori Gorge."

"Abkhazia also asks the UN to call on Georgia to return to the table of negotiations in the existing format and to sign unconditionally a document on non-resumption of military actions, which the two sides coordinated, and on international security guarantees," the statement says.

"As a party to the conflict and an immediate participant in the process of negotiations, Abkhazia once again asks the UN to consider a possibility of inviting its representatives to the next meeting of the UN Security Council, in the course of which all the attending members of the council will be able to hear the Abkhazian viewpoint and get a more truthful picture of Georgian-Abkhazian peace settlement process," the Foreign Ministry said.

It voiced grave concern over President Saakashvili's recent speech at the UN where he practically declared that Georgia was pulling out of UN-guided talks with Abkhazia and another much-troubled region, North Ossetia.

"Saakashvili's speech once again showed the Georgian government is showing off its conflict with Abkhazia as a Georgian-Russian conflict," the Foreign Ministry said. "This approach shows Georgia's willingness to apportion all blame for the initiation of conflicts in these two regions to Russia."