Georgia for Zimbabwe
// The UN involved in protecting Russia’s peacekeepers
The USA and Georgia want to push Russia’s peacekeepers aside
Yesterday Russia for the first time officially accused Georgia of aggression against South Ossetia and its being privy to the recent terrorist attacks in Abkhazia. Moscow intends to get the UN Security Council to take part in its countering Tbilisi. With its diplomatic advance, Russia is trying to avert the changing of the peacekeeping mission’s format in the zone of the Georgia-Abkhazia and Georgia-South Ossetia conflicts and the involving of international forces into it, which Georgia and the USA have urged.
Yesterday the Russian Foreign Office issued an utterly harsh statement regarding the recent exacerbation of the situation in the Georgian-Abkhaz and Georgian-Ossetian zones of conflict. Moscow openly accused Tbilisi of fueling tensions. The recent massive mortar attack against Tskhinvali, violations of the conflict zone’s airspace by fighter jets and unmanned aerial vehicles of the Georgian air forces, setting up a post on a strategic height near the village of Sarabuki, as well deployment of extra Georgian military equipment in the conflict zone are rendered “an open, preplanned act of aggression committed against South Ossetia” in the press-release.
Moscow is even more critical of Tbilisi’s policy towards Abkhazia, virtually accusing the Georgian government of terrorism. Reminding of a series of explosions that occurred in several Abkhaz towns and of the fact that the “Abkhaz authorities designate these blasts as terrorist acts,” the Russian MFA bluntly states, “The Georgian side, according to available evidence, may have had a hand in organizing some of them.”
The statement of the Russian Foreign Office followed Russia’s introducing in the UNSC a draft of a resolution calling for an immediate signing documents providing for ceasefire in the zones of the Georgia-Abkhazia and Georgia-South Ossetia conflicts. It need be said that the Russian initiative turned out surprising to the majority of the delegations, since the Georgia-South Ossetia conflict, unlike the Georgia-Abkhazia one, is not subject of the UNSC’s consideration. The Russian party explained the introducing of this matter in the UNSC by the fact that the bombing of Tskhinvali “has escalated the situation in the Caucasus region as a whole and in Abkhazia in particular.”
However, there is one more factor that can prevent the Russian resolution from being adopted. Unlike the majority of the previous resolutions about the situation in the region, this one contains concrete claims to Tbilisi. Apart from the agreement on cease-fire, the claims include a compete withdrawal of Georgia’s troops from the Kodori Gorge. For all that, yesterday the members of the Security Council started consultations regarding the issue.
According to the information of Kommersant it got from western diplomatic sources, the USA’s willingness to pass a resolution imposing sanctions on the regime of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe boosts the chances that the Russian resolution will be adopted as well. The USA has already introduced a draft of the document, though 6 countries out of the 15 members of the Security Council do not support it. Russia, China, the Republic of South Africa, Vietnam, Indonesia and Libya are among those opposing the draft. In this case, from the viewpoint of the officials, the American diplomats won’t dare urge that all countries support the resolution on Zimbabwe simultaneously putting its veto on the Russian project concerning Georgia.
When answering a question about diplomatic horse-trading “Zimbabwe for Georgia,” Permanent Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin appeared to have denied such a possibility, stating, “There is no connection here.” Nonetheless, you could notice some hints in his words implying that there is connection between Zimbabwe and Georgia. As he was asked whether Russia will use its veto when voting on the Zimbabwe project, Mr Churkin said that he suggested that his American opposite number Zalmay Khalilzad shouldn’t rush to put the Zimbabwe resolution to the vote. “Veto is a strong word, I try to avoid using it until I get the instructions,” the Ambassador replied evasively.
The key target of the Russian diplomatic advance in the Georgian direction might be an attempt to counter Tbilisi’s plans to change the format of the peace-keeping mission in the region. The Russian Foreign Ministry has actually acknowledged it. “The aim of fanning tensions in relations with Abkhazia and South Ossetia is to destroy the peacekeeping architecture that has been in place in the region for decade and a half so as to replace it with new, suiting the Georgian side, mechanisms of settlement,” yesterday’s press-release reads. Besides, Russia’s Foreign Office censures the U.S. Department of State because of its idea to deploy international police forces in the zone of the Georgia-Abkhazia conflict (Sean McCormack has recently made this the point).
It’s true that Georgia’s pressing for changing the format of the peace-keeping mission is based on the support it has gotten from the USA. According to the information of Kommersant, this matter was the key issue discussed yesterday during Condoleezza Rice’s visit to Georgia. A source in the Georgian Foreign Ministry confirmed it to Kommersant, “In the course of the visit the question of deploying international forces was thrashed out. We do not mind Russia’s peace-keepers staying there, only the format must be changed.”
Tbilisi appears rather resolute, and it intends to change the format whatever the cost. “Unless the format is changed, Georgia will have to take unilateral steps regarding the peacekeepers,” David Bakradze, Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, stated yesterday after his meeting with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan, who is in charge of settling the dispute between Georgia and Abkhazia. An open threat voiced by one of Georgia’s top politicians can only mean that the situation in Georgia will get even more heated.
Gennady Sysoev; Dmitry Gornostaev, RIAN correspondent in New York, specially for Kommersant
All the Article in Russian as of July 10, 2008
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