UN envoy briefs Abkhaz, Georgian leaders on Geneva talks

Heidi Tagliavini, who is UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's envoy for the Abkhaz conflict, met in Sukhum on 27 February with Abkhaz Prime Minister Gennadii Gagulia and Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba, and in Tbilisi with President Shevardnadze, to inform them about the 19-20 February "brainstorming session" in Geneva of representatives of the UN Secretary-General's Friends of Georgia group, Caucasus Press reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 24 February 2003). That session was intended to generate new approaches to resolving the Abkhaz conflict. Tagliavini reportedly said that participants agreed on the need to create three bodies to focus, respectively, on economic problems, the repatriation of displaced persons, and political issues. In 1997, a Coordinating Council for resolving the conflict was established under the UN's aegis. That body has three working groups to address security issues, including maintaining the existing cease-fire, assisting displaced persons, and coping with economic issues (see "RFE/RL Newsline" 19 November 1997). LF