PROTOCOL OF THE TWELFTH SESSION OF THE COORDINATING COUNCIL OF THE GEORGIAN AND ABKHAZ SIDES

23 January 2001

The Twelfth Session of the Coordinating Council, established on the basis of the Concluding Statement on the outcome of the Geneva Meeting of the Georgian and Abkhaz sides held from 17 to 19 November 1997 took place on 23 January 2001 under the auspices of the United nations and the chairmanship of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Dieter Boden, with the participation of representatives of the Russian Federation in its capacity as facilitator, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the States comprising the Group of Friends of the Secretary-General - France, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States of America - as observers.

The Georgian side was represented by a delegation headed by Mr. Giorgi Arsenishvili.

The Abkhaz side was represented by a delegation headed by Mr. Vyacheslav Tsugba.

The agenda included the following items:

1. Issues relating to the constant non- resumption of hostilities and to security problems, in particular the outcome of the meeting of Working Group 1 on 13 December 2000.

2. Refugees and internally displaces persons, in particular the outcome of the meeting of Working Group 3 on 5 December 2000.

3. Economic and social problems.

4. Other matters, including a discussion on preparation for the third meeting on confidence building, to be held in Yalta at the invitation of the Government of Ukraine.

Opening the session, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General thanked the parties for their contribution to advancing the peace process, but noted that an even more active approach to the resolution of outstanding problems would need to be adopted, in particular with regard of recent incidents in Gali district, violation of the Moscow Agreement on a Ceasefire and Separation of Forces in November and December of 2000 and the taking hostage in December 2000 of a number of the UN military observers.  The Sspecial Representative of the Secretary General called upon the sides to take the opportunity of the meeting in Yalta, to be held at the initiation of the Government of Ukraine to reach agreement on confidence-building measures and advance the peace process.

The representatives of the sides made statements.  Representatives of the Russian Federation in its capacity as facilitator, the OSCE and the Group of Friends of the Secretary-General took part in the discussion of the agenda.  The Chief Military Observer of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) and the Commander of the Collective Peacekeeping Forces of the Commonwealth of Independent State (CIS) reported on the situation in the conflict zone.

The Council adopted the following decisions:

1. To instruct the sides to consider proposals concerning the borders of the restricted-weapon zone and to submit their observations in writing within a week to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

2. To instruct Working Group 1 to resume works on the statement made at its sixth session and submit its proposals to the Coordinating Council.

3. To endorse the proposals submitted by Working Group 3 and instruct it to continue its search for funding the joint projects in the economic field.

4. To allow the sides to begin reburying the dead from the grave near the Babushera airport.

5. To consider the proposal by the Government of Ukraine to hold a third meeting on confidence-building in Yalta on 15 and 16 march 2001 and to deliver a written reply to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations before 31 January 2001.

6. To convene the thirteenth session of the Coordinating Council no later than April 2001.

(Archive of the Staff of the State Minister of Georgia for Conflict Resolution Issues/in Russian)