Europe

Europe

French president demands entry of European monitors into Abkhazia, S.Ossetia

07 October 2011 18:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday demanded entry of European monitors to Abkhazia and South Ossetia which declared independence after the August 2008 conflict between Georgia and Russia, APA reports citing Xinhua.

Georgia claims sovereignty and territorial integrity over these regions.

The European Union now has a monitoring mission in the South Caucasus country of Georgia in the name of EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM) which monitors the fulfillment of the August 2008 ceasefire agreement and the September 2008 ceasefire supplement accord as signed by Georgia and Russia with the mediation of France then serving as the rotating presidency of the European Union.

"France was the first to put its gendarmes along the administrative border," said the French president during his public address delivered in the Freedom Square in downtown Tbilisi on Friday, "in order to avoid further escalation of the conflict. Even today more than 200 European monitors are in place, fulfilling the monitoring mission and keeping peace (in Georgia)."

"The European monitors should be able to enter Abkhazia and South Ossetia, in order to make sure that the rights of the people there are protected," Sarkozy added during his 20-minute speech.

The French president appealed to Georgia and Russia to set up a course toward the right path of solving their differences "because a conflict is not a destiny neither in the Caucasus nor anywhere else."

The signers of the ceasefire accord and the supplement to the accord should meet the obligations, the French president said. " This should probably be a natural motion, because the international law demands this and because a new conflict would make the region and world peace face an unthinkable risk."