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Abkhazia Urged to Negotiate
The second round of Caucasus negotiations under Medvedev-Sarkozy peace deal that has been slated for November 14 is under the wreckage threat. Spokesmen of the EU, U.N. and OSCE visited Sukhumi yesterday to urge Abkhazia’s leadership to attend the talks, to no avail though.
The first round of Caucasus negotiations was held in Geneva October 15 and its results could be hardly regarded as promising. Abkhazia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba that headed Sukhumi delegation marched out of the negotiating hall together with the delegation of South Ossetia headed by Vice Premier Boris Chochiev.
Chamba attributed his demarche to the status proposed to Abkhazia, whereby its delegation was unable to take part in the plenary sitting, confining to speaking in time of the expert discussions without specifying the country’s origin of speechmakers.
A delegation of big-name diplomats of Europe, including EU Special Representative for the crisis in Georgia Pierre Morel, arrived in Sukhumi yesterday. The diplomats negotiated with Shamba in the morning and met with Abkhazia’s President Sergei Bagapsh after it.
Abkhazia’s participation in negotiations is questionable, Bagapsh made clear after the talks. The president said they would attend provided they had equal rights. “We don’t intend to sit on the bench of unrecognized. Abkhazia’s authorities aren’t particularly willing to carry on dialogue with the current criminal regime of Georgia, but made this step in Geneva out of respect for such world leaders as Medvedev and Sarkozy.”
Another demand of Bagapsh is that the spokesmen of Georgia-oriented temporarily administrations of Abkhazia and South Ossetia would leave the negotiating table.
The equal status of Abkhazia’s and Georgia’s delegations wouldn’t mean Abkhazia’s recognition by other nations, Sergei Shamba explained. “We only demand a seat at the negotiating table and to recognize us an equal party. We have had that status even in time of direct negotiations of Tbilisi and Sukhumi,” the minister pointed out.
In the RF Foreign Ministry, they said that the arrangers of Geneva talks are to directly solve their difficulties with Abkhazia and Moscow won’t act as an intermediary. “Our standing is permanent. We will take part in the meetings, where Abkhazia and South Ossetia are represented, and won’t attend any other events. We won’t be bound by the decisions taken in our absence,” a top-ranked diplomat from the ministry said.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 11, 2008
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