At UN, Saakashvili calls for new approach to conflict resolution

President Mikheil Saakashvili, following a meeting yesterday with the UN secretary-general, said international efforts have so far been ineffective in solving the Abkhaz separatist conflict and promised new proposals for conflict resolution.

Saakashvili said he told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the Russian-led CIS peacekeeping force is illegal and “counterproductive” after Russia withdrew this month from the treaty levying an economic embargo on breakaway Abkhazia. The UN contribution to conflict resolution has also failed, he said.

“UNOMIG cannot effectively fulfill its role, as the main thing the joint UN-CIS operation had to do was ensure the return of refugees [from the Abkhazia conflict]. This has been basically frozen and is not being done,” Saakashvili told reporters.

Saakashvili said he proposed changing the peacekeeping format at the meeting, adding that Tbilisi would present a “radical” initiative for conflict resolution.

“We will put on the table new, important and radical proposals for resolution of the [Abkhazian secessionist] conflict early next week,” Saakashvili told Georgian reporters.

Saakashvili met with the UN secretary-general at the beginning of his visit to the United States. Today, Saakashvili is to meet US President George W. Bush and other US officials.

A spokesman for the US State Department reiterated Washington’s support for Georgia’s territorial integrity yesterday, and said that question would be among others discussed when the presidents meet.

“We usually talk about a variety of bilateral issues, including some of our efforts to help support political and economic development in the country. We also generally will talk about issues related to some of the other countries in the region, and certainly, Georgia-Russian relations are usually part of that conversation as well,” the spokesman said.

Saakashvili’s visit has come under the spotlight of Russian media, with news agency RIA Novosti characterizing Saakashvili’s trip to the States as one “to restore his image.”

Georgian political analyst Ramaz Sakvarelidze said Saakashvili’s US visit, coming shortly before a NATO summit at which Georgia hopes to receive a membership nod, is a message to Russia, which opposes Georgian integration into the military alliance.

“This visit, of course, will have an impact on the NATO summit in Bucharest, so the reason fro the aggression coming from the Russian media is quite clear,” Sakvarelidze told the paper yesterday.