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[Second Issue of the Day]
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U.N. raps separatists, extends Georgia mission
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, July 29 (Reuters) - The Security Council on Monday extended for six months the U.N. mission in the former Soviet republic of Georgia and told separatists in Abkhazia they would not get independence legally and should negotiate.
Abkhazia broke away from Georgia in 1993, after the breakup of the Soviet Union. No country or international body recognizes its sovereignty and it is visited only by Russian soldiers, U.N. officials and a few relief agencies.
Some 250,000 Georgians fled in 1993 when the separatists, backed by mercenaries and arms from Russia's northern Caucasus region, drove out Georgian government troops and subsequently declared independence.
The United Nations has drawn up a document that was meant to be a basis for negotiations between Georgia and Abkhazia. But Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his special envoy, Dieter Boden of Germany, said leaders of the breakaway province in late May again rejected any discussion of the paper.
The Security Council in its resolution, adopted unanimously, said it regretted "the repeated refusal of the Abkhaz side to agree to a discussion on the substance of the document." It stressed that the continued lack of progress was "unacceptable."
The council said a solution must include a "settlement of the political status of Abkhazia within the State of Georgia."
The U.N. mission has 108 military observers from 23 nations, 96 international civilian staff and 176 local staff. Established in 1993, it is fielded by the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The council routinely renewed the mandate until Jan. 31, 2003.
Russia has long accused Georgia of harboring Chechen rebels in its Pankisi Gorge on the border with Chechnya, and urged Tbilisi to let in Russian troops to hunt them down. Georgia has refused and instead invited U.S. military instructors to train Georgian troops to fight militants with alleged links to the al Qaeda clandestine network.
Washington is spending some $64 million, four times the annual defense budget of Georgia, which has struggled to rein in rebels in Pankisi and in Abkhazia.
In June, about 600 troops from NATO and non-NATO countries launched a mock peacekeeping operation in Georgia, but Russia stayed away despite its growing ties with the alliance.
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