Tbilisi Offers Sokhumi Treaty on Non-Resumption of Hostilities

The Georgian side has offered the authorities in breakaway Abkhazia to sign a joint declaration on non-resumption of hostilities, Georgian State Minister Giorgi Khaindrava told Rustavi 2 television on July 22.

The text of the declaration was handed over to Georgia?s Group of Friends of the Secretary-General, involving representatives from France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom during a meeting in Tbilisi on Friday. The Abkhaz side has boycotted this meeting.

?Although we have announced several times that Georgia wants this conflict to be solved peacefully, we understand the concerns of the Abkhaz society and decided to proposal this joint declaration,? Giorgi Khaindrava said.

Irakli Alasania, the Georgian President?s representative in talks over Abkhazia who also chairs the Tbilisi-based Abkhaz government-in-exile, told reporters on July 22 that the document also deals with the issues related to the safe return of Georgian internally displaced persons to Abkhazia.

In a statement issued on July 22 the UN Observer Mission in Georgia expressed regret over the Abkhaz side?s refusal to come to Tbilisi, which resulted in a postponement of talks.

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