Eurasia Press & News
Abkhazia demands that Tbilisi withdraw its troops from the breakaway Georgian region’s border, a spokesman for the Abkhazian president said on Tuesday. Â
“Georgia must withdraw its military units from the upper part of the Kodori gorge, together with its puppet administration,” Kristian Bzhania said.Â
He said that in a recent resolution, the UN Security Council said it “shares Abkhazia’s position, expressing serious concern over numerous violations of ceasefire and disengagement agreements.”Â
On Monday, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved an extension of the mandate for its monitors in Georgia by another six months, until April 15, 2008.Â
The UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) was established on August 24, 1993 by a UN Security Council resolution in order to monitor the ceasefire between Georgia and Abkhazia.Â
The province declared its independence from Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, sparking a bloody conflict in the region.Â
The UN Security Council also demanded that Georgia ensure the free movement of Russian peacekeepers in the region, noting their stabilizing role. Earlier, Georgia had demanded that Russian peacekeepers be withdrawn and replaced with an international contingent.Â
Mutual accusations of ceasefire violations have been frequent from both Abkhazia and Georgia, whose president, Mikheil Saakashvili, has vowed to regain control of the breakaway region.Â
The most recent peace talks broke off when Tbilisi sent troops into Kodori in July last year and established a parallel Abkhaz administration there.Â
According to Russia’s Foreign Ministry, on September 20 this year a Georgian special forces unit crossed the border into Abkhazia and attacked servicemen at a military base belonging to the anti-terrorist center of the Abkhazian Interior Ministry.Â
Late last month, Abkhazian President Sergei Bagapsh ordered the deployment of additional local forces to the de facto independent republic’s border with Georgia.Â
