Abkhaz President, new UN Representative meet

During talks in Sukhumi on 2 December with Dieter Boden, the new UN Special Representative for Georgia, Abkhaz President Vladislav Ardzinba called for the immediate signing of the agreement on peace and the non-resumption of hostilities, Caucasus Press reported. That draft agreement, together with a protocol on the repatriation of displaced persons, was prepared in June 1998 by Abkhaz and Georgian representatives, but Tbilisi repeatedly declined to sign them. Ardzinba said the signing of the peace agreement would end the deadlock in relations between Abkhazia and the central Georgian authorities. Ardzinba also reaffirmed that he will not sign any constitutional power-sharing agreement with Georgia, according to Interfax. LF
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