In a statement issued on March 17 the Russian Foreign Ministry accused Tbilisi of hampering peace process in the Abkhaz conflict by refusing “for unknown reasons” to finalize a joint Georgian-Abkhaz agreement on non-resumption of hostilities and on launching of registration of those internally displaced persons, who have already returned back to Gali district of Abkhazia.

The Russian Foreign Ministry’s accusations follow the March 13 statement of the Georgian Foreign Ministry in which Tbilisi argued that Russian special envoy for the Abkhaz conflict issues Mikhail Bocharnikov failed to offer “new approaches or elements of the conflict resolution” during the latter’s visit to Georgia.

“The Georgian side, as shown by the experience of previous months, blocks the implementation of those agreements, which emerge in number of directions due to the activities of international mediators. In particular, the draft document on the security guarantees and non-resumption of hostilities, which was agreed between the Georgian and Abkhaz delegations and prepared for signing by early December, 2005, was withdrawn by the Georgian side by mid December under far-fetched pretexts,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
 
The Russian Foreign Ministry also accused the Georgian side of deliberately postponing launch of re-registration of internally displaced persons, having returned to the Gali district of breakaway Abkhazia, although the relevant agreement was already achieved in summer 2005.

“One should remember that Russia is not a party in this conflict. It has a status of a mediatory party in the process of negotiations between the Georgians and the Abkhazians under the aegis of the UN. Thereof, achievement of agreements, as well as proposal of new “elements and approaches” is a prerogative of the conflicting sides themselves. Tbilisi, judging by the results of the previous consultations, still is not ready to propose not only anything new, but even any clear and realistic vision of the ways for conflict resolution,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.