Eduard Shevardnadze On Ways To Settle The Abkhazian Conflict

The Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze is convinced that "there are resources in order to strengthen efforts for a peaceful settlement of the Abkhazian conflict." According to a RIA Novosti correspondent, Eduard Shevardnadze said this Monday in his traditional interview to the national radio. To quote him, "much has been done in that direction on an international scale and in bilateral relations." Shevardnadze also underlined a major role played by "public diplomacy". "I think we are approaching the time when the two peoples must become reconciled with one another and find an appropriate form for cohabitation," the Georgian president noted. Shevardnadze said that at a meeting of CIS countries' heads of state, which was due to be held in Minsk on June 1, he was going to raise the issue of Russia's position during the drafting by the UN Security Council of recommendations on the division of powers between Tbilisi and Sukhumi. The Georgian president stressed that the adoption by the United Nations of a document which would formulate the main principles on which Abkhazia's status within Georgia should be based, "presupposes a compromise rather than the imposition of something unacceptable on the Abkhaz people."