Georgia halted drone flights over Abkhazia: envoyUNITED NATIONS (AFP) — Georgia has halted unmanned aircraft flights over the separatist region of Abkhazia after a UN report determined that they were in violation of ceasefire accords, its ambassador to the UN said Friday.
"Since the report was out, we stopped our UAV (drone) overflights in the region," Ambassador Irakli Alasania told reporters after attending a closed-door meeting with the 15-member council.
The report issued Monday also backed Georgian claims that a Russian fighter jet on April 20 shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle in Georgian airspace over Abkhazia in violation of the ceasefire accords.
Russia denies involvement, saying it had no fighter jets in the area. The Abkhaz separatist rebels claim their own air defenses shot down the drone.
Alasania made it clear that if "there is a threat to our national security or any provocation, we will exercise our sovereign right" to resume the reconnaissance flights over Abkhazia.
"It is a Georgian sovereign right to exercise its military intelligence capability to get information on the ground," he noted.
But Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters after the Security Council meeting that "the evidence presented by the (UN) report is something which is not convincing, which is sketchy, which is not full."
"We want to get to the bottom of it and for that to happen we will need all the evidence which was in the possession of (the UN experts), not just (that) included in the report," he added.
"We are prepared to make a thorough investigation, including foreign experts."
Noting that the UN experts concluded that the Georgian drone had been shot down by an aircraft coming from Russia, US deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff described the incident as "a very dangerous development, highly provocative."
But Churkin spoke of "technical inconsistencies" in the UN report, pointing in particular to differences in lighting and terrain in the Georgian videotape of the drone downing.
He also said that the drone overflight of Abkhazia was not "an isolated incident," but the culmination of Georgian actions allegedly aimed at building up tension in the zone of conflict, referring to the Kodori valley.
Georgia retook control of the Kodori valley from a local warlord in 2006, renamed it Upper Abkhazia and established it as the headquarters for the Abkhaz government in exile, made up largely of Georgians who fled Abkhazia during its war of secession in the early 1990s.
Moscow alleges that Georgia has deployed more than 1,500 armed men, heavy artillery and supplies in the valley in breach of its ceasefire agreement with Abkhazia.
A Russian request to have an Abkhaz representative present at Friday's meeting was rejected, but Churkin said "there was a large degree of support" for the Abkhaz separatist side to participate in future council deliberations.
"Without the Abkhaz it is pointless to discuss this question," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying earlier by the ITAR-TASS news agency.
"The fact they are refusing to let them take part in this investigation creates the impression of the grubbiness of this whole affair."
Tbilisi has accused Russia of arming the Abkhaz rebels and pushing them towards war with Georgia in a bid to stop Georgia from joining NATO. Georgia says NATO is the only way to guarantee its sovereignty in the face of Russian pressure.
Russia has accused NATO members of contributing to a "destabilizing" military build-up in the region by providing military equipment, training and financial support to Georgia.
Abkhazia, a sliver of land between the Black Sea and the Caucasus mountains, broke away from Georgia after fierce fighting in 1992-93 and now has de facto independence without foreign recognition, but strong backing from Russia.
Moscow last month further boosted ties with the separatists despite objections from Tbilisi.
Source
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i71CPBELWa54sWovy9dW982XrkjA
Back to Index
Move to Top 
