Vitaly Churkin, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations, listens during a press conference after the Security Council session in New York, Tuesday, March 27, 2007.
Photo: AP
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
One-Chairman Show
// Russia and the U.S. disagreed in the UN Security Council over Abkhazia
The UN Security Council discussed on Tuesday the Georgia-Abkhazia conflict. Just like a week ago when Kosovo’s status was discussed, differences between Russia and the U.S. led to scandal again. Dmitry Gornostaev, RIA Novosti’s correspondent in New York, brings the details, specially for Kommersant.
The discussion in the UN Security Council was heated up by the fact that US authorities had denied a visa to Abkhazia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba. Russia’s repeated requests, and even the interference of UN Security Council Chairman, British Permanent Representative to the UN Sir Emyr Jones Parry, did not help. Thus, only Jean Arnaud, UN Secretary-General’s special envoy for the Georgia-Abkhazia conflict, and Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli, who specially arrived to New York, spoke at the Council’s closed session.
Nogaideli was the first to tell journalists what was going on behind closed doors. “First, I will speak in Georgian, and then in other languages,” he warned in English with a light Georgian accent. Georgian journalists assure that the prime minister said the same in his native language, in English, and then in Russian.
Tbilisi’s stand, delivered to the Council by Nogaideli, is that the Georgia-Abkhazia “conflict can be settled in the peaceful way only, and with respecting Georgia’s territorial integrity, while Abkhazia’s future should be determined by its entire population that lived there before the conflict, which is about 600,000 people”. Nogaideli then spoke about the shooting attack on the upper part of the Kodori Gorge on March 11. Tbilisi accuses Moscow of being mixed in it. There have already been two inspections, and Tbilisi hopes for the investigation’s end soon and for the Council’s corresponding reaction. However, according to some information, Jean Arnaud has already made it clear that it is too early yet to speak of who bombarded the Upper Kodori.
Nogaideli added that he had not raised the Kosovo issue (which Russia always interlinks with the Abkhazia issue) at the Council’s session (because “Kosovo and Abkhazia are issues of no relation”). The Georgian official also said that he had not brought up the issue of non-Russian peace-keepers’ presence in the conflict zone (Tbilisi had always insisted on it before). After speaking to journalists for about 5-7 minutes, Nogaideli left, accompanied by Georgian diplomats and Afro-American security guards.
Russian Ambassador to the UN came out next. Vitaly Churkin began with criticizing Georgia for not completely fulfilling the Council’s resolution #1716. Russia is concerned about the situation in the Kodori Gorge, where “Georgia’s armed presence surpasses reasonable tolerable limits”, Churkin said. Moscow also thinks that Georgia’s developing its military infrastructure in Kodori is extremely dangerous, as well as the “storage of certain materials in the Kodori Gorge, which could be used for offensive military actions”.
However, Churkin devoted much more time to criticizing the U.S. for denying a visa to Sergei Shamba. “We believe it is a grave diplomatic and political mistake of the U.S. -- not to allow Shamba come to New York and speak to the Security Council,” the Russian ambassador said. He reminded that the representative of Kosovo’s Albanians was granted the opportunity to express his point of view on the Kosovo issue a week ago, despite that Kosovo’s president, who came to New York, is not an official representative of a UN member state. “Can it be imagined that the international community should listen only to Serbia in the Kosovo issue? I think there would be no Ahtisaari’s plan then. It is disrespect towards the Security Council – not to let the conflict’s other party speak!” Churkin was indignant about the U.S. Department of State’s behavior.
Actually, every country hosting UN bodies undertakes strict visa obligations. A country is to give visas even to the representatives of those states with which this country does not have normal relations. For instance, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez and Cuba’s leader Fidel Castro spoke in the UN headquarters in New York. However, the U.S. has recently suspended issuing visas to the members of Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s delegation, but there was no denial of visa to the president himself.
The situation with Abkhaz minister is somewhat different: he is not an official representative of a UN member state. Yet, if the U.S. is interested in solving the conflict, it should listen to both parties, together with other Security Council members, Churkin said. Moreover, Abkhazia is an internationally-recognized party of the conflict, according to the Council’s resolution.
The Russian ambassador said that Council members will receive a DVD with Shamba’s recorded speech, so that his stand on the issue is delivered from his own lips anyway. In a 14-minute address, the Abkhaz minister briefly touched upon the history of the long-term conflict, and expressed regret that “until this day, the Security Council had not listened to both parties of the conflict, which gives grounds to think that the UN has not become an equidistant mediator”. Shamba assured that Abkhazia’s future lies in building an independent democratic state, which should put an end to “the era of Stalin, on whose order Abkhazia was included into the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic”. Finally, Shamba asked the Council to take into account the will of Abkhaz nation expressed at the referendum.
However, UN diplomats heard all this only later in the day. Several minutes after Churkin, the Permanent U.S. Representative to the UN came out to journalists. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff was trying to keep calm at first. He said that “issues of visa policy is the interior matter of the U.S., while Russia is the only country of the UN Secretary-General’s Friends Group on the Georgia-Abkhazia conflict [its members are Russia, the U.S., Great Britain, France, and Germany.—Kommersant], that believes Shamba’s arrival to New York would have been well-timed.” Yet, when Wolff learnt that his Russian counterpart had been speaking here just a moment ago, he became personal.
“We've heard ambassador Churkin today, as he has done previously, raise false analogies with Kosovo, in a mischievous effort to complicate that discussion," Wolff stopped hiding irritation. “Churkin spoke to the Council, and then left right away, coming out to journalists instead of listening to other reports!” went on the U.S. diplomat. “He left the Council without waiting to hear other speeches. I think it is a part of the show that he is trying to create around the issue,” summed up Wolff, and gave a wink to journalists. Yet, apparently, the show metaphor seemed insufficient to Wolff, and he called Russia’s suggestion about Shamba’s coming to New York “especially provocative”.
About 20 minutes later, Churkin returned to the session hall. Learning that his actions have just been called a ‘show’, he smiled and asked: “But did he too come out to journalists during the Council?”. Churkin promised to sit right opposite to his counterpart Wolff, and to stare him in the eyes, apparently to make him feel ashamed. Churkin explained that he came out not to avoid his colleagues’ speeches, but to deliver his speech to the UN Disarmament Commission, which was scheduled long ago. By the way, that speech as well contained numerous criticism of the U.S.
However, after the Council on Abkhazia was over, Churkin and Wolff came out together, laughing catchingly. Journalists asked whether they had spoken about shows, and the Russian ambassador replied:
“I promised to send him a DVD with my speech for the Disarmament Commission. So that he watches it.”
Dmitry Gornostaev
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 12, 2007
|
|
|
