SECOND MEETING OF THE GEORGIAN AND ABKHAZ SIDES OPENS

HR/98/51
23 July 1998




Liviu Bota Calls on both Sides not to Undermine Peace Efforts


The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Georgia, Mr. Liviu Bota, this morning opened the second high-level meeting between the Georgian and Abkhaz parties at the Palais des Nations.

In his opening speech, Mr. Bota, who chairs the meeting, expressed his concern that in spite of all efforts to activate the peace process, the Georgian and Abkhaz sides were still far apart on the key issues of the political settlement of the conflict. He stressed that the primary responsibility for resolving the outstanding problems rested with the two parties and called on them to refrain from any actions which might undermine the peace efforts.

The Georgian delegation is led by Mr. Irakli Menagarishvili and the Abkhaz one is led by Mr. Sergei Shamba. Also participating in the meeting, which is expected to go on until Saturday, 25 July, is: the delegation of the Russian Federation in its capacity as facilitator, led by Mr. Lev Mironov; the delegation of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, led by Mr. Michael Libal; and the representatives of the countries that are members of the group of Friends of the Secretary-General: France, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Mr. Bota expressed his concern about the state of security conditions in the zone of conflict, adding that the events in May had sharply illustrated the seriousness of the problem. He said tension was high and the potential for a new outbreak of hostilities was real. The parties had already undertaken obligations in connection with the right of refugees and displaced persons to freely return to their former permanent residence, and more than 50,000 refugees had returned spontaneously to the Gali district in the last two years. Unfortunately, the May events stopped and reversed this process and some 40,000 local residents of the Gali district had fled their homes for a second time.

The Chairman noted that the mechanism created at the previous Geneva Meeting had not yet fully begun to work and there were key provisions of the concluding statement of the Geneva meeting and the decisions of the Security Council which had not been fully implemented. He suggested that “a properly prepared meeting” between Georgian President Edouard Shevardnadze and Abkhaz leader Vladislav Ardzinba “might offer new possibilities for progress.”

During the public opening ceremony, the participants approved the agenda for the meeting which included the following substantive items: review of the state of the negotiations on the main aspects of a comprehensive settlement of the conflict and identification of areas where concrete political progress might be made; consideration of the question of the return of refugees and displaced persons; and efforts in the economic, humanitarian and social areas.

The head of the Georgian delegation, Mr. Menagarishvili, told participants that he hoped that the meetings would allow all sides to exchange their views on a wide range of issues in order to agree on how to proceed. He said it was “impossible” to continue to live like this. Despite efforts, the two sides had not been able to achieve clear positive progress to resolve the conflict. He said that today, the meeting was faced with “problems which are more acute, more difficult and more profound than they were a year ago. The problem of refugees had become more exacerbated.”

Mr. Shamba, head of the Abkhaz delegation, thanked all the participants in the meeting. He hoped the meeting would achieve progress which would give rise to “real, tangible results.” He said the delegation had prepared a statement which had been circulated among the participants.

Mr. Mironov, head of the delegation of the Russian Federation in its capacity as facilitator, said he attached great importance to the meeting which provided an opportunity to work out some measures which would make it possible to move forward with the process and solve the “acute problem.” He agreed with Mr. Bota that unfortunately, the mechanism which had been established last November was working “with a lot of disruptions and was constantly getting bogged down.”

The next speaker was Mr. Libal for OSCE who said that recent events in the Gali district had shown it was more than ever necessary to finally make progress to end the conflict. He said that for the OSCE, the human dimension of the problems the parties were facing was of particular importance. This was especially true with regard to the principle of an unconditional return of refugees, foremost those who had become victims of the last events in Gali. In realizing this, the participants should avoid that events should repeat themselves.

The last speaker was the Coordinator of the group of Friends of the Secretary-General, Patrick Pascal, the representative of France, who said that the May events had lent more urgency to the group’s concerns. He said the major task was to resolve the problems of security and the refugees.

The participants will continue their meetings in closed session. The parties held their first high-level meeting in two parts in 1997, from July 23 to 25 and from November 17 to 19. The meeting was held at the Palais des Nations.