Sukhumi Wants Additional Check Points of Russian Peacekeepers
At the talks with the Georgian side in Tbilisi on February 10 Abkhaz side pushed the issue of setting up of permanent checkpoints of the Russian peacekeeping troops in Kodori gorge, which is the only part of breakaway Abkhazia under the Georgian authorities’ control.
The talks between the Georgian and Abkhaz sides on the issue of security guarantees were held under the Chairmanship of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Georgia Heidi Tagliavini, and with the participation of the Group of Friends of the Secretary-General.
The Abkhaz delegation led by de facto Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba and Georgian side, which was represented by the Special Affairs Minister Malkhaz Kakabadze, stressed the importance of the resumption of patrolling in the Kodori gorge by the UN observers. The monitoring of the gorge was suspended last June, when unknown gunmen kidnapped three UN observers and held them in detention for five days.
The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative Heidi Tagliavini offered to help conduct consultations with international experts on security guarantees and to organize a meeting between representatives of the sides and international experts on this matter in Geneva on 22 April 2004.
The participants of this meeting also agreed that the next meeting on security guarantees will take place in breakaway Abkhaz capital Sukhumi on 20 May 2004.
