Officially the
“Report of the Secretary General pursuant to Security Council
resolutions 1808, 1839 and 1866" was handed over to the members of
the Security Council of the United Nations late at night on
Monday. For the first time the name of the document does not
contain any reference to belonging of Abkhazia to Georgia as the
previous reports of the Secretary General of the United Nations on
this subject did. Earlier the title of each of them contained the
words ‘on the situation in Abkhazia, Georgia".
One of the paragraphs of the report prepared mentions "United
Nations stabilization mission" that can actually mean Ban
Ki-moon's offer to change the name of the Mission. The secretary
General has also proposed 11 elements of the new security regime,
including creation of security zones on land, at sea and in the
air, restricted zones, mechanisms of mutual notification, UN
monitoring, transparency arrangements including access and
provision of information and so on. On the basis of this new
regime, according to the report, a new mandate of the mission
should be developed.
Officially the members of the Security Council of the United
Nations will consider the report at the session on May 27 where it
will be presented by the Special Representative of the Secretary
General Johan Verbeke. And till June 15 when the present mandate
of the mission expires, the Security Council should adopt the
resolution on the basis of the proposals of the Secretary General
stated in the report.
It is obvious that the new security regime is supposed to replace
the regime that has existed according to the 1994 Moscow agreement
on cease-fire which de facto ceased to function after the Georgian
party has left it last August. The Secretary General proposes to
preserve per se some elements of that regime.
The updated mandate, according to Ban Ki-moon, should include the
tasks to monitor and verify implementation of the security regime
as proposed; to maintain contacts with the parties and other
actors, including through the joint incident prevention and
response mechanism; to facilitate the freedom of movement of the
local population across the ceasefire line, including through
monitoring at crossing points; to contribute to the provision of
humanitarian assistance and the creation of conditions for the
safe and dignified return of refugees; to facilitate protection of
human rights; to facilitate contacts between the parties, with a
view to promoting cooperation on practical issues,
confidence-building and dialogue. The report also contains
estimation of the developments in the Mission’s area of
responsibility since February, 2009. In particular, the Secretary
General mentions that activities of different parties - Georgian,
Russian and Abkhaz are not corresponding with the Security Council
resolutions |