In an attempt at conciliation, Tbilisi has agreed to release seven Abkhaz militiamen after talks in Sokhumi on October 25.
The meeting between Davit Bakradze, the Georgian state minister for conflict resolution issues, and Sergey Shamba, the Abkhaz foreign minister, was the first senior-level contact between the sides in over a year.
“I think that the meeting was very useful,” Bakradze told reporters in Sokhumi after the talks. “Undoubtedly, difficulties still remain and there are disagreements. But there are some issues which need practical meetings and practical consultations, similar to that held today.”
He said the seven Abkhaz militiamen, captured by Georgian Interior Ministry forces in a clash on September 20, would be released on October 27. He asked that the UN Secretary General’s special representative to Georgia, Jean Arnault, facilitate the hand over process.
“This is a good will gesture from the Georgian side that, we think, will undoubtedly foster an improved general climate [in bilateral relations],” Bakradze said. “As a result of our good will, in two days, after all the formalities are done, the seven arrested servicemen, who are currently held in Tbilisi, will be released.”
Two former Russian officers, reportedly on contract with the Abkhaz forces, were also killed in the September 20 clash.
The resumption of weekly quadripartite talks, known informally as the Chuburkhinji Sessions, was also agreed during the talks, Shamba told reporters after meeting with Bakradze.
“You known that currently the negotiating process is temporarily in a state of stagnation,” he said. “I hope we will be able to overcome all the obstacles. Problems exist and they probably will still remain for a long time.”
“We think that there is a need for cooperation in the Gali district to secure a more stable situation there. And we have agreed that it is necessary to resume the quadripartite meetings, which were usually held in Gali. We agree on a number of issues, but there are details which, I hope, we will be able to resolve in the near future,” Shamba added.
The so-called Chuburkhinji Sessions – which were usually held in the village of Chuburkhinji in the predominantly ethnic Georgian-populated Gali district – have not been held since November 2006. The sessions used to involve representatives of the Georgian and Abkhaz sides, along with Russian peacekeepers and UN observers, to discuss routine ongoing developments in the conflict zone.
The meeting between Shamba and Bakradze in Sokhumi was facilitated by the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative to Georgia, Jean Arnault.
Diplomacy between Tbilisi and Sokhumi had been frozen since last summer, when the Georgian central authorities cracked down on a local rebel group in upper Kodori Gorge in breakaway Abkhazia and deployed forces there.
The last time senior Abkhaz and Georgian officials met was in Sokhumi last September, when Merab Antadze, then Georgia’s state minister for conflict resolution issues, tried in vain to convince the Abkhaz side to resume attendance at the Coordinating Council. The Georgian-Abkhaz Coordinating Council, which last gathered in May 2006, after a three-year pause, is a UN-led negotiating body dealing with security, the return of refugees and displaced persons, and socio-economic issues.
Since last summer Sokhumi had linked the resumption of dialogue to preconditions, such as the withdrawal of Georgian forces and the Tbilisi-backed Abkhaz government-in-exile from the Tbilisi-controlled upper Kodori Gorge in the breakaway region.
Shortly before Bakradze’s arrival in Sokhumi, Shamba said that the Georgian state minister’s visit did not mean “a resumption of talks.” “We just need to clarify some the issues,” he told the Tbilisi-based Rustavi 2 TV by phone on October 25, without giving further details.
The fatal September 20 clash triggered a war of words between Tbilisi and Sokhumi, with some Abkhaz lawmakers even calling for “tougher action” against the Georgian forces in upper Kodori Gorge and criticizing the Abkhaz executive authorities for their “moderate, non-aggressive stance.”
While in Sokhumi Bakradze, the Georgian state minister, made his opening remarks to the press in Georgian and said: “My native language has not been heard in Sokhumi for a long time.” But then, in a clear conciliatory gesture, he greeted Abkhaz journalists in the Abkhaz language. “I will use this chance and welcome you in the Abkhaz language; although I do not speak this language, I respect it greatly,” he said, and then switched over to Russian to talk about the results of the negotiations.
After the talks, Shamba invited Bakradze to take a walk in Sokhumi. The two men walked through the grounds of school number one, which was, before the war, a Georgian-language school. Bakradze said its current empty state was “a symbol of the conflict.”
“We want that all children return to this school. We also want that there are no closed schools and there are no children unable to return to their own schools. We have to travel a very serious and difficult road before that point.”
