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In Fallout from Georgian Drone,
Abkhazia Analogies Cut Two Ways, Kosovo or Chechnya
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, May 29 -- As the fallout of the unmanned aerial vehicle or
drone shot down over Abkhazia on April 20 reaches into the UN Security
Council,
Georgia on Thursday disputed the UN's
statement that its drone flights over
Abkhazia violate its commitments in the so-called Moscow Agreement. Georgian Ambassador Irakli Alasania compared
the drones to a camera in the hand of a photographer. He said Georgia
has been
forced to deploy its intelligence assets in light of Russian moves in
Abkhazia. Inner City Press asked if, as
the UN's report on the drone downing says, the flights violate the
Moscow
Agreement. No, Amb. Alasania said. Video here.
Inner City Press asked Russian Ambassador Vitaly
Churkin to comment on
this. "Illogical and strange,"
Amb. Churkin called it, that Georgia would be asking for a Security
Council
meeting based on a report which, in what Churkin calls its only
statement of
fact, criticizes Georgia for the drone flights. Churkin said that
unanimity had
not been possible on its request that Abkhaz representatives be allowed
to
attend the Security Council meeting, which will therefore be unbalanced, and held behind closed doors. He predicted
that support was growing for Abkhaz involvement in the Council's
meeting in two
months on the UN's next Georgia report. Given the support in this
dispute for
Georgia, by the U.S. and others, consensus is hard to imagine.
Blue helmets, green trees, falling drones not
shown
Inner
City Press asked Amb.
Alasania, since Georgia is asking compensation, how much each drone
costs. I
don't know, he answered, that would be negotiated bilaterally with
Russia. With
Abkhazia -- said by a Georgian minister to have more weaponry than
Syria --
claiming to have shot down seven drones, Inner City Press asked Amb.
Alasania
how many drones have been downed. We are speaking about the April 20
incident,
Alasiania said.
There was a battle of analogies. Supporters of the
Abkhaz side compare
the situation to that of Kosovo, which was allowed to participate in
Security
Council meetings. Georgian Ambassador Alasania, on the other hand,
urged Russia
to withdraw its request for Abkhaz participation in the Council, saying
this is
"not in the best interest of Russia," as it would set a precedent for
"other separatists" to participate -- a reference, it seemed clear,
to Chechnya. The analogies of Abkhazia, then, can cut at least two
ways. We
will continue to follow this story.
* * *
These reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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