Sep 12, 2006

Abkhazia: Continue Talks with Georgia Only Under Previous Agreement


Abkhazia will continue talks on the condition that the terms of previous agreements of peace settlement are observed, says Shamba.

MOSCOW, September 11 (Itar-Tass) - Abkhazia will continue talks with Georgia's central government only on the condition that the terms of previous agreements of peace settlement of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict are observed, Sergei Shamba, the Foreign Minister of the unrecognized Abkhazian Republic said Monday.

As he commented on the situation in the much-troubled Kodori Gorge, where a part of the territory is controlled by Georgian forces, Shamba recalled that the May 1994 Moscow agreement on ceasefire and disengagement of forces, which Georgia and Abkhazia signed with Russia's mediation and U.N. assistance, is the basic document effective today.

Following its signing, a CIS collective peacekeeping force was introduced in the zone of conflict, shortly a full-blown war had raged shortly before that.

All the peacekeeping servicemen are Russian nowadays.

"The process of negotiations will depend on how the Georgian side will act," Shamba said. "If the Georgian leaders prefer to solve the Kodori Gorge problem the way that the agreements spell out, we'll naturally continue the talks, too."

"But if it insists on keeping the orders it has installed there, this will naturally put up an obstacle to negotiations," he in an interview with Rossiya TV channel.