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Diplomats meeting at UN-chaired talks on Georgia stress need for peaceful settlement

3 February 2006 – Wrapping up two days of United Nations-chaired talks on Georgia held in Geneva, key countries involved in the peace process stressed the need to address the core political cause of the conflict between the Government and Abkhaz separatists.

In a press statement, the so-called Group of Friends of the Secretary-General – Germany, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States – underlined that the basis of their efforts was the settlement of the conflict by peaceful means and in the framework of relevant Security Council resolutions.

The Group “underscored the urgent need for tangible results in the peace process and agreed that, in addition to continuing work on confidence-building measures, including the finalization of the package of documents on non-use of force and the return of internally displaced persons and refugees, there was a need to address the core political issues of the conflict.”

The meeting was chaired by the UN Under Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, Hédi Annabi, and was attended also by the senior UN envoy to Georgia, Heidi Tagliavini.

In another development, a senior official with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) met with a joint Georgian-Abkhazian delegation on Thursday in talks aimed at assisting the 220,000 internally displaced persons in Georgia and about 50,000 people who have returned to the Gali District.

Pirkko Kourula noted UNHCR’s success in bringing the plight of the internally displaced persons to the global community’s attention and securing additional funds for its efforts in the region.

The conflict in Abkhazia, strategically located on the Black Sea, began with social unrest and the attempts by the local authorities to separate from the Republic. It escalated into a series of armed confrontations in the summer of 1992. A ceasefire agreement was concluded later that year but never fully implemented. Fighting which followed forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee.

Diplomacy by the Secretary-General’s envoy helped to secure another peace agreement, paving the way for the establishment of the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG). Fighting later resumed, sending hundreds of thousands of civilians, mostly Georgians, fleeing their homes. Subsequent talks led to the deployment of a peacekeeping force of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as well as the strengthening of UNOMIG.

The Security Council has adopted a series of resolutions successively renewing UNOMIG’s mandate, most recently on 31 January.