Officials Lay Out Tbilisi’s UN Abkhaz Resolution Priorities

Unconditional support for Georgia’s territorial integrity and the property rights of displaced persons and their right to return, as well as the need for the resumption of talks without any preconditions should be included in an upcoming UN Security Council resolution on Abkhazia, Georgian officials have said.

Davit Bakradze, the state minister for conflict resolution issues, and Irakli Alasania, Georgia’s ambassador to the UN, are holding consultations with UN officials and Security Council members in New York ahead of the resolution, which is expected to be adopted on October 15.

“We will try to ensure that all three issues are reflected in the new resolution,” Bakradze, who also met with the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, told reporters.
 
Officials also said they wanted the resolution to “adequately” reflect “the progress made by the Georgian side” in the Tbilisi-controlled upper Kodori Gorge in breakaway Abkhazia.

In an April resolution on Abkhazia, the UN Security Council called on Tbilisi to ensure that the situation in the upper Kodori Gorge was in line with the 1994 Moscow Ceasefire Agreement.

“There are attempts to include this provision in its previous form in the new document,” Alasania told reporters. “We, however, have stressed during the consultations that there has been obvious progress in Kodori and this should be adequately reflected in the resolution.”

It is still unclear how the resolution will characterise the fatal September 20 clash between Georgian and Abkhaz forces. The UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) is currently engaged in independent fact-finding efforts to clarify the circumstances of the incident.

“We know that the result of UNOMIG’s investigation will be issued in a few days and only afterwards will the UN Security Council decide on how to reflect it in the resolution,” Alasania told reporters.

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