UN/MOSCOW, April 10 (RIA Novosti) - The UN Security Council will consider the situation in the Georgian breakaway republic of Abkhazia Tuesday, despite the separatist region's representative being refused a visa, a Russian diplomat said.
The council session will be convened in the wake of Tbilisi reports March 13 about artillery and helicopter shelling of three villages in the north of Kodori Gorge, a territory in Abkhazia controlled by the central Georgian authorities.
Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli will attend the session while Abkhazian Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba, who has Russian citizenship, has been denied a U.S. visa. Russia, a permanent UN Security Council member, has said the denial is "discriminatory."
"Both the Abkhazian and Georgian sides have been officially recognized as equal and therefore they should have the right to present their stance directly to those who are trying to resolve the problem," Vladislav Chernov, the Russian envoy for the conflict, said.
Abkhazian President Sergei Bagapsh suffered from angina Monday and arrived in Moscow for cardio treatment Tuesday morning. He was expected to attend a summit of post-Soviet breakaway republics of Georgia and Moldova April 10-11.
At the New York session, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will deliver a report on the progress of the Russian-sponsored resolution passed last October. The document urged Georgia to pullout from northern Kodori and ruled to extend the Russian peacekeeping mission in Abkhazia until April 15.
The session will study the possibility of extending the mandate of the UN observer mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) for another six months, and bringing the two conflicting sides to the negotiating table.
West-leaning Georgian authorities are seeking to replace Russian peacekeepers, who have been staying in Abkhazia since the early 1990s, with an international contingent. Georgia accuses the Kremlin of supporting its breakaway regions. Most of Abkhazians hold Russian citizenship.
