UN Security Council Condemns Attack On Helicopter

The Russian Foreign Ministry press department has reported that the UN Security Council has resolutely condemned an attack by Chechen and Georgian fighters which downed a Mi-8 helicopter carrying members of the local UN mission. The aircraft crashed in the Kodori gorge in Abkhazia. Security Council members stressed the need to investigate the tragic incident to identify the guilty parties and bring them to justice. The council viewed the incident as the latest aggravation of the situation in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian in the light of the growing threat of terrorism in Georgia. The Mi-8 helicopter with members of the UN Georgian observation mission on board was shot down yesterday in the Kodori gorge by a group of Georgian and Chechen fighters. Five UN officers, their translator and three crew members were killed. The Russian Foreign Ministry has stressed that Moscow was proceeding from the basis that the UN Security Council should follow the situation in the region and how the Georgian authorities fulfil the demands made by the UN, in the first place, in relation to putting an end to the activity of illegal bandit formations operating on territory controlled by Tbilisi.