‘Time to Bury UN-led Format’ – Georgian Minister

Temur Iakobashvili, the Georgian state minister for reintegration, said UN-led negotiating format over the Abkhaz conflict “has died.”

Remarks followed after the foreign minister of breakaway Abkhazia, Sergey Shamba, said Sokhumi could consider pull out from the format, following the UNOMIG statement that Russian fighter jet downed Georgia’s drone over Abkhazia on April 20.

“As far as the Abkhaz side’s statement is concerned, I think that the Abkhazians do not make this statement at their own will. Probably they are dictated to act so. If they quit the negotiations under the UN aegis, it is even better, because I think that this format has died long ago and now it is time to bury it,” Iakobashvili told journalists on May 27.

Series of meetings known as the Geneva Process – as the city has been the traditional venue for such meetings – brings together France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia and the U.S.  – the UN Secretary General’s Group of Friends of Georgia. Both the Georgian and Abkhaz sides attend the meeting. The latest meeting in the series took place on February 18-19.

In April the Parliament in breakaway Abkhazia called on the Abkhaz leader, Sergey Bagapsh, to suspend Sokhumi’s participation in the Geneva Process. The resolution of the breakaway region’s legislative body followed after four members of the Group of Friends – the U.S., Britain, France and Germany – called on Russia “to revoke or not to implement its decision” on establishing official ties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Meanwhile, Abkhaz leader, Sergey Bagapsh, denied on May 27 conclusions of the UNOMIG probe and said that Russia had nothing to do with downing of the Georgian drones.

“All seven Georgian unmanned drones were downed by the Abkhaz air-defense system,” Apsnipress news agency quoted Bagapsh as saying.

Sokhumi claims that it shot down Georgia’s seven Israeli-produced unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) – Hermes 450 since March. Tbilisi has confirmed downing of only one of its UAVs on April 20.

UNOMIG said in its conclusions that during the investigation the Abkhaz side provided its experts with access to the debris collected from the incidents of March 18, April 20 and May 12. The report also notes that although the Abkhaz side claims it has downed 7 UAVs in the period between March 18 – and May 12, UNOMIG can confirm only the debris from the incidents on March 18, April 20 and May 12 to be from Hermes 450.

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