This article was updated on 2/17/09 to clarify a statement by de facto Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba.
The United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) was given a four-month extension after weeks of concern that its mandate would be the latest victim in the diplomatic fall-out following Georgia and Russia's 2008 war.
The decision to extend the UN's monitoring mission came just two days before its mandate was set to expire on February 15. Under the terms of the agreement passed by the UN Security Council, UNOMIG will operate in Abkhazia until June 15, while proposals for a "revised security regime" are considered. A draft document is expected by May 15.
The UNOMIG decision, which does not mention "Georgia" or "UNOMIG" by name, comes amidst an ongoing debate over the operations of the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) in Georgia. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive]
Currently, OSCE military monitors are set to remain in Georgia for another four months, but the future of the whole mission remains under negotiation.
The Abkhaz de facto authorities had maintained that the UN should set up a separate mission to Abkhazia, that did not answer to its mission in Tbilisi. Georgia has countered that establishing a separate UN mission would be akin to international recognition of the breakaway territory's independence.
"We are saying that the UN mission should be continued, but it needs a new name and a new format because the old one is no longer valid," de facto Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba said in a phone interview with EurasiaNet from the Abkhaz capital, Sokhumi.
While officials and diplomats on all sides have claimed the UNOMIG extension as a victory, one analyst in Tbilisi maintains that it is largely a stop-gap measure that does nothing to defuse tensions over the disputed territory.
"It is still not the final solution of the problem," said Vasil Tchkoidze, president of Tbilisi's Center for European Integration Studies. "It is necessary to secure [a] permanent, sustainable and long-standing international mission there in order to follow the situation of human rights and the situation of stability in this region."
In an official statement posted on February 16, de facto Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba called for renewing weekly meetings with Georgian government envoys in Gali, a predominantly ethnic Georgian region of Abkhazia. The meetings would take place with UN, Russian and European Union participation, Shamba proposed. A full-time European Union mission, however, would not be invited to work in Abkhazia since the EU "does not recognize the independence of the Republic of Abkhazia," he said.
To EurasiaNet, Shamba said that Abhazia wants inclusion in meetings about the proposal as a full member. "If there will be some meetings that our delegation will not be able to participate in, we will leave and not return to the process. We were only invited like experts in a working group [earlier]. . . we said no to that format."
Tbilisi has not yet responded to the statement.
In an earlier statement, Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze described the extension as a "technical rollover" and downplayed the fact that the resolution makes no reference to UNOMIG by name.
"The important [thing] is that this is one mission and one mechanism with the mandate to operate on the both sides [of the Abkhaz administrative border]," Vashadze said on February 14, according to press reports.
Russia's delegation, however, maintains that the ambiguous wording was a clear victory for Sokhumi.
"The fundamental thing is there is no reference to territorial integrity of Georgia in this resolution and it would not have been possible to have it adopted had there been such a reference,"commented Vitaly Churkin, Russia's UN delegate, RIA-Novosti reported.
Irakli Kavtaradze, the first deputy chairman of Georgia's parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, objects that the resolution - formally known as Resolution 1866 -- does support Georgia's territorial integrity by referencing other decisions passed by the Security Council.
An oblique reference to the Security Council "welcoming" the Sarkozy-Medvedev Peace Agreement, known as the six-point plan, is "essential" to the country's security, he said.
The agreement calls for Russia to remove its forces to pre-August positions and allow international monitors access to both conflict zones in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
As the wrangling continues, though, one Tbilisi analyst takes a pragmatic view. While UNOMIG has limited authority in its present capacity, noted Mamuka Areshidze, head of the Centre of Strategic Research of the Caucasus, "[i]t is better than nothing."
