UN Team to Visit Tbilisi, Sokhumi
A UN team tasked with assessing the peace process in Abkhazia will visit Tbilisi and Sokhumi this weekend, Michele Montas, a UN spokesperson, said on July 3.
“The mission will report back to the Secretary-General on key challenges in the UN-led peace process and possible solutions,” she said.
The group, led by Bertrand Ramcharan, former acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, will also visit the capitals of the member states of the Group of Friends of the Secretary-General – France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Since 1993 the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) has been verifying compliance with a ceasefire and separation of forces accord following the armed conflict in Abkhazia.
Temur Iakobashvili, who held talks with UN officials in New York this week, reiterated that Tbilisi wanted to replace the current Russian-led peacekeeping force and negotiating formats. He said that the removal of Russian peacekeepers would also effect UNOMIG’s operations. “So consultations are needed,” Iakobashvili added.
