Thursday, December 18, 2008
GENEVA —
Russian and Georgian peace negotiators have moved forward on easing tensions but fallen short of an accord that would establish an international observer for Georgia's breakaway provinces, participants in the talks said Thursday."The basic issue was access for international monitors," said Georgia's Deputy Foreign Minister Giga Bokeria after the latest round of talks in Geneva.
He said Russia and its proxies in the breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia refused to allow the international monitors to have access to the territory they control.
"We need a full-blown international peacekeeping operation" but an observer mission with full access "would be an important first step," Bokeria told The Associated Press.
The two sides have been discussing how to prevent shootings and other clashes that have been an obstacle to restoring stability since the August war that uprooted more than 160,000 people, officials said.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried said progress was made toward an agreement on how to deal with and avoid the sometimes deadly clashes but: "I regret that we did not achieve this agreement."
Even though an existing European Union monitoring mission is doing its best, its lack of regular access to South Ossetia and limited international access to Abkhazia are problems that need to be addressed, Fried told reporters.
Bokeria said Georgia would be prepared to have Russian participation in joint observer missions on all its territory so they can investigate clashes.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said the negotiators had engaged in a free exchange of views.
"Today at times, the discussions were very heated, which is actually natural since the political views ... are very different," Karasin said.
The next meeting of the Geneva peace talks will take place on Feb. 17-18, said EU representative Pierre Morel.
The two days of talks in Geneva that ended Thursday were the third round of negotiations that began in October under the cease-fire reached through French mediation.
Russia has accused Georgia of "dangerous actions" including concentrating forces in areas near Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Tensions between Moscow and Tbilisi have remained high since fighting broke out Aug. 7 when Georgian forces tried to regain control of South Ossetia.
Representatives from the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe also attended the talks.
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Associated Press writers Eliane Engeler and Frank Jordans contributed to this report.
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