UN should have a separate mission in Abkhazia if its observers want to stay in the region, Sergey Shamba, the foreign minister of breakaway Abkhazia, said.

He said on February 4 that although Sokhumi was interested in the mission’s continued presence, the mission should be renamed and called “UN observer mission in Abkhazia,” instead of “in Georgia.”

In October, the UN Security Council agreed on technical four-month extension of UN mission’s mandate, till February 15. The text of resolution does not even mention the mission’s official name – UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG); instead it was referred as “UN mission.”

“If our proposals are accepted, the activities of the UN Mission in Abkhazia will continue. If they try to impose on us some projects, which are against our interests, we will simply not accept them, and accordingly, there will be no mission here and no prolongation of their mandate,” Apsnipress news agency reported quoting Sergey Shamba.

Officials in Tbilisi say that Russia may also veto extension of UN observers’ presence in Georgia at the Security Council after it had already blocked extension of OSCE mission’s mandate. Like in case of OSCE mission, which among other things was dealing with the South Ossetian conflict, Russia is also pushing for having a separate, independent UN mission in Abkhazia, which will not be linked with the mission’s headquarters in Tbilisi.

Speaking after meeting in Sokhumi with special envoys from UN, EU and OSCE – who are co-mediators at the Geneva talks, Shamba also said that Sokhumi was strongly against of letting EU monitors inside the breakaway region, citing that their mandate was covering Georgia and not Abkhazia.

“There were times, when we trusted the European Union more than UN, but now the EU’s position is absolutely unacceptable for us. The statements by EU representatives that Abkhazia will never be recognized and that Russia should revoke its recognition decision do not trigger any hope for cooperation. This will not lead to anything constructive,” Shamba said. 

He, however, also said, that Sokhumi would not be against if the EU observers participated in the quadripartite meetings in the village of Chuburkhinji of the Gali district, if such meetings were resumed. No such meetings have been held since November 2006.

Speaking about the upcoming fourth round of talks in Geneva, Shamba said that Sokhumi would be against of holding a formal, plenary session, if Abkhaz negotiators were not represented there.

Officials in Tbilisi said on February 3 that Georgia was in favor of holding a plenary session in Geneva. The previous two rounds of talks in November and in December were held within two informal working groups, without holding an official plenary session. Talks in frames of two separate working groups – one dealing with security issues and another one with matters related to internally displaced persons and refugees – enables negotiators to meet each other on an individual capacity without identifying the entities they are representing, hence avoiding differences on the status of negotiators mainly related with representatives of breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia.