Meeting Of Coordinating Council For Settling Georgian-abkhazian Conflict Under Un Aegis Cancelled

The 13th session of the Coordinating Council for Settling the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict under UN Aegis, scheduled to be held in Tbilisi on Tuesday, October 9, has been cancelled, said the UN Monitoring Mission in Georgia on Monday. This is the third time that the 13th session is being put off -- it was earlier scheduled for May and then July of the current year. Then, due to the aggravation of the situation, the Abkhazian side refused to take part in the negotiations. At the mutual decision of the sides, the current meeting has been put off to an indefinite time. The UN mission refrained from stating the reason for the regular postponement of the Coordinating Council meeting. Observers believe that it is connected with the fresh aggravation of the situation in the conflict zone. On October 8, a helicopter of the UN Mission carrying 9 people on board was shot down by an illegal armed grouping in the Gulripsh district of Abkhazia. It is reported that Dieter Boden, special representative of the UN Secretary General, head of the UN Monitoring Mission in Georgia is flying to Sukhumi on Monday. In 1993 after the Soviet Union fell apart, the autonomous republic of Abkhazia which was within Georgia's borders, proclaimed its sovereignty. The war that broke out produced no results and was stopped. Russian peacemaking troops are in the disengagement zone.