Annan: Abkhaz Peace Process ‘Perilously Close’ to a Standstill

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged the Georgian and Abkhaz sides to resume political contacts and to continue pursuing negotiations of a settlement to the conflict, warning that the peace process has come “perilously close” to a standstill.

“I remain deeply convinced that further progress in the peace process is possible only through participation of both sides in genuine negotiations,” Kofi Annan says in a report to the UN Security Council on the situation in breakaway Abkhazia, issued on October 20.

He noted that while his Special Representative to Georgia Heidi Tagliavini is still in close and frequent contact with both sides, they have not met at the political level since July, and even the regular working level contacts have been suspended.

The UN Secretary-General expressed hope that after the October 3 presidential elections in the breakaway region the Abkhaz side “will muster the political will” to return to the UN-led peace process without preconditions and to seek solutions at the negotiating table.

Kofi Annan urged the Georgian side to maintain its commitment to pursuing settlement of the conflict in Abkhazia and other internal disputes exclusively by peaceful means.

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