U.N. council to discuss Georgia-Russia dispute

[tigershark]

U.N. council to discuss Georgia-Russia dispute
(Refiles to fix typographical error in headline) (Recasts with meeting scheduled)

By Patrick Worsnip

UNITED NATIONS, April 21 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council agreed on Monday to a Georgian request to hold a special meeting this week in the latest crisis between Tbilisi and Moscow over the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia.

The request, submitted last week, gained extra momentum after Tbilisi accused Russia of shooting down an unmanned Georgian reconnaissance plane at the weekend.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters after consultations among the 15 council members that a private meeting would be held on Wednesday afternoon.

Georgia's Foreign Ministry said a Russian air force jet had shot down the drone over Abkhazia on Sunday. The Russian air force denied the allegation.

Georgia's U.N. Ambassador Irakli Alasania said his country's foreign minister, David Bakradze, planned to attend the council session and present evidence of the attack.

Churkin said he had urged the council that an Abkhazian representative also be allowed to attend. "We think that this is not right that for a number of years when this situation ... has been discussed with the Security Council the Abkhazian side has never been allowed to speak," he said.

Alasania dismissed claims by Abkhazia's separatist administration that its forces had shot down the drone, saying Tbilisi had clear evidence a Russian jet was responsible.

Abkhazia, on the Black Sea coast, is internationally recognized as part of Georgia. It has been controlled by Moscow-backed separatists since a war in the early 1990s.

Tbilisi last week accused Moscow of a de facto annexation of Abkhazia, and a second breakaway Georgia region of South Ossetia, after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his government to establish closer ties with the separatists.

Alasania said the Russian move "means that they are effectively annexing parts of my country."

He said Russia, which maintains a peacekeeping force in the region, had "crossed the 'red line' and completely discredited itself as a facilitator of the conflict settlement."

The United Nations also has about 150 military observers and police in Georgia.

"Clearly what we're going to bring up at the Security Council is that we want to have new arrangements in the peace format," Alasania said. (Editing by Mohammad Zargham)


Source
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN21478539

[tigershark]

Georgia says Russian jet shot down its drone
Georgia says Russian jet shot down its drone
Mon Apr 21, 2008 8:02am EDT

TBILISI (Reuters) - A Georgian unmanned reconnaissance plane downed at the weekend was shot down by a Russian air force jet, Georgia's air force said on Monday, citing video footage of the incident.

"On April 20 a Russian Mig-29 fighter jet shot down an unarmed, unmanned air vehicle which was performing basic reconnaissance over Georgian territory," Colonel David Nairashvili, commander of Georgia's air force, told Reuters.

"It's absolutely illegal for a Russian Mig-29 to be there," he said.

A spokesman for Russia's air force, when asked about the Georgian allegation, said: "Nonsense. What would a Russian jet fighter be doing over Georgian territory?"

The drone was brought down near Abkhazia, a Georgian region which broke away from Tbilisi's rule in a 1990s war and is controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, Nairashvili said.

Abkhazia's separatist administration said on Sunday its forces had shot down the drone.

Tbilisi's pro-Western government last week accused Moscow of a de facto annexation of Abkhazia after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his government to establish closer ties with the region.

Georgia's air force supplied to Reuters video footage which it said was recorded and transmitted by the drone's on-board camera before it was shot down.

The pictures show a jet aircraft firing a missile in the direction of a drone. A few seconds later the screen goes blank. No identification markings are visible on the aircraft that fired the missile.

Nairashvili said the aircraft type meant it could only be a Russian air force jet. "The Mig-29 has a distinctive twin-tail marking. It's a Russian aircraft. Georgia does not possess it, nor do Abkhaz separatists," he said.

Radar records showed the aircraft took off from a base in Abkhazia and crossed into Russia after the attack, Nairashvili said.

(Reporting by Margarita Antidze and Dmitry Solovyov; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Sami Aboudi)

Source
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL2153087320080421?sp=true