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Russia 'to veto Abkhazia mission' Russia blocks UN's Abkhazia role
(about 14 hours later)
Russia has threatened to veto attempts to extend the UN's observer mission to Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia. Russia has vetoed an extension of the UN observers' mandate in Georgia, so a 131-strong UN team will now have to leave the Georgia-Abkhazia border zone.
Moscow says it will block a resolution at the UN Security Council unless references describing the territory as Georgian are removed from the text. Russia's move at the UN means there will be no more impartial international observers inside the disputed regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The UN mission's mandate expires at 0400 GMT on Tuesday. The UN mandate was "built on old realities," said Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin.
Russia has recognised the independence of Abkhazia and Georgia's other rebel region of South Ossetia. The West says the two regions remain part of Georgia. Russia has controlled the rebel areas since a war with Georgia last year.
Some 170 UN observers monitor the border between Russian-backed Abkhazia and Georgia. Speaking at the UN Security Council in New York, Mr Churkin said "only a new security system on the Georgian-Abkhaz border could guarantee non-aggression by Georgia".
Western dilemma Recognition row
Washington and its European allies have drafted a resolution referring to the UN mission in Georgia. Russia has recognised the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but the West says the two regions remain part of Georgia.
Russia says this is unacceptable, arguing that the mission is not in Georgia. Abkhazia's ethnic Georgian community complains that security has deteriorated since last year's war.
"They [Western nations] indicated that they plan to go to a vote on their draft tonight, and in our traditional frankness I indicated to them that Russia will vote no," Russia's ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin said. Georgia's Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze denounced the Russian veto, saying Tbilisi would never accept any decision that challenged Georgia's territorial integrity.
The BBC's Laura Trevelyan in New York says Russia's threat to use its power as a permanent member of the Security Council leaves Western countries with a dilemma. UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband accused Russia of using its veto power to "pursue its own narrow interests".
She says they must decide whether to press ahead with a vote and risk the end of the UN mission in Abkhazia, or back down, which Russia could claim as the West recognising Abkhazia's independence. The UN mission has been on the ground in Abkhazia since 1993, when it was deployed to monitor an earlier ceasefire between Abkhaz separatists and Georgian forces.
The head of the UN mission says the population will be vulnerable if the mission is closed down. The BBC's Tom Esslemont in Tbilisi says the ending of the UN mandate comes just as the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) prepares to terminate its small observer mission in Georgia too.
Abkhazia's ethnic Georgian community complains that security has deteriorated since last year's war between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia. It means that the European Union Monitoring Mission is the only recognised international observation force on the ground, he reports.
Diplomats in New York are now trying to see if a compromise can be reached in the next few hours, our correspondent says. With Russian soldiers and Georgian police units stationed metres away from each other along the borders, it now falls to the EU monitors alone to make sure the fragile truce is honoured. But their mandate only allows them access to areas under Georgian control, our correspondent says.