UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recommended that the Security Council extend the mandate of UN observers in Georgia by four months - until February 15, 2009 – instead of the usual six months.

In his report to the Security Council, the UN secretary-general said that the future of UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) and its exact mandate remained unclear following the August war between Russia and Georgia.

UNOMIG has been monitoring observance of the 1994 Moscow agreement on ceasefire and separation of forces between the Abkhaz and Georgian sides for over a decade. After the August war, however, Georgia withdrew from the agreement. Ban noted in his report that “the context in which UNOMIG has operated during the past 14 years has changed considerably” with the August events and the scraping of the 1994 agreement.

“Under these circumstances, it is too early at this stage to define the role that UNOMIG may play in the future,” the report reads.

“I have received formal indications from the Georgian and Abkhaz sides that they support the continuation of the Mission,” the secretary-general said in the report. “It is in this context that I recommend to the Security Council that it extend the mandate of the Mission on a technical basis for a period of four months.”

In the next four months, he said, consultations would intensify with interested parties on the future role of the UN in the Abkhaz conflict zone. These consultations, he added, would be held in the frames of the Geneva talks, which are planned to start on October 15. The talks were agreed on September 8 between the French and Russian presidents.

“I would like to point out that any future arrangements would have to ensure the non-resumption of hostilities and the protection of all vulnerable groups. This should constitute a basic common goal for the international community, which the Security Council should not fail to achieve,” the secretary-general said.

In the report, Ban noted that the August war was “not entirely unexpected.”

“Over the past few years, I have highlighted the very serious deterioration in the relations between the Georgian and Abkhaz sides, which had reached their worst level in years in the second quarter of 2008,” he said. “I pointed out, in particular, the growing skepticism of both sides regarding the possibility of reaching a negotiated solution to the conflict. During the same period, relations between Georgia and the Russian Federation became increasingly tense.”

He also notes: “The launch by the Georgian side of large-scale operations in South Ossetia in August only strengthened the Abkhaz side’s perception of being a likely target.”