UN Cites ‘Slow Progress’ in Abkhaz conflict
In his latest report to the UN Security Council on situation in Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia, Secretary-General Kofi Annan says that the conflict resolution remains “painfully slow,” the UN news centre reports.
As in his previous report in January, Annan called on the Abkhaz side to “seriously review its position” and take advantage of the changing political situation resulting from the election of a new Georgian government to start “meaningful negotiations” on substantive issues.
“Disappointingly, there was no movement by the Abkhaz side on the core political question,” he says, referring to its refusal to receive a paper on distributing “competences” between the two sides and its continued invocation of its unilateral “declaration of independence.”
He calls on the Abkhaz side to permit the deployment of civilian police of the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) in the Gali district of breakaway Abkhazia, in line with its earlier commitments, to improve overall security – a necessary condition for the return of IDPs and refugees.
