Abkhaz Reports: Sokhumi Rejects EU Proposals, for Now

Sokhumi will agree to EU-proposed measures on confidence-building only after Tbilisi has pulled out its forces from upper Kodori Gorge, Abkhaz leader Sergey Bagapsh said, according to the Apsnipress news agency.

Bagapsh also told the EU’s special representative for the South Caucasus, Peter Semneby, in Sokhumi on June 11, that Sokhumi also wanted Tbilisi to release Davit Sigua, an official from the Gali district of breakaway Abkhazia, who has been missing since February 2007.

Semneby was in Sokhumi to talk about EU confidence building measures. In January, an EU fact-finding mission visited Abkhazia to look into possibilities on how the breakaway region could benefit from the EU?s Neighborhood Policy (ENP) with Georgia.

?Normal relations between Georgia and Abkhazia are necessary for the implantation of all EU proposals. Currently there are no [normal relations between Sokhumi and Tbilisi]… I am ready to consider the possibility of implementing your proposals, but only after two problems are resolved: the Kodori Gorge issue and the release of Davit Sigua who is held by Georgia,? Apsnipress quoted Bagapsh as saying.

Sokhumi wants Georgia to withdraw its forces and the headquarters of the Abkhaz government-in-exile from the upper Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia.

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