UN Security Council Demands Immediate Release of Observers

(Tbilisi, June 6 2003, Civil Georgia) – The United Nations Security Council demanded on June 5 the immediate, unconditional release of four personnel from the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) taken hostage earlier in the day by unknown armed group, the UN news centre reported.

Two UN military observers, a paramedic and Georgian interpreter are still in the hands of the hostage-takers.

?We are very concerned at this incident,? the Council President for June, Ambassador Sergey Lavrov of the Russian Federation, told reporters after a briefing by Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations H?di Annabi.

?The members of the Council support what the [UN] Secretariat is doing and we join in the demand to release hostages immediately without any conditions,? Ambassador Lavrov said. 

The UN Mission is in contact with the Georgian authorities, who have the prime responsibility for the security of UN staff, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York.

The representative of the Georgian President for the Kodori gorge had flown into the valley to establish contact with the hostage-takers, he added.

The UN is also in contact with the Abkhaz authorities and the leadership of the CIS peacekeeping force.

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