UN Military Observer Mission In Georgia
Helping Or Hindering The Problem In The Caucasus?
Nov 23, 2008
The United Nations arrived in The Republic of Georgia in 1993 following the first Georgian-Abkhaz conflict in 1992. The victorious Abkhaz forces, strongly supported by the Russians, then decimated this once prosperous area destroying entire villages and every single piece of infrastructure. In Soviet times, the region was one of the most prosperous in the Union, but the wanton destruction of property and infrastructure by Abkhaz militia has turned the area into a lawless wasteland.
Fifteen years on, the United Nations Military Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) remains in the area with two bases; one in Zugdidi on the Geogian side of the ceasefire line, and the other in Gali, on the Abkhaz side. The Gali Sector continues to be the only international monitoring force in the Abkhaz area, but the Zugdidi Sector now works alongside the European Union Monitoring Mission south of the Inguri River.
Given the recent clashes between Georgian and Russian forces, the United Nation's Mission has been completely invalidated as a result of the Moscow Agreement, which stated the requirements of each side as far as the movement of weapons and associated montoring, falling apart.
The region's overall stability is further hampered by the rampant banditry practiced by the Abkhaz militia in the vicinity of Gali and surrounding villages. The local militia an untrained and violent group who have begun to take increasingly to kidnap, harassment and extortion of the local population who, incidentally, are mostly ethnic Mingrelian and, therefore, consider themselves to be Georgian rather than Abkhaz.
However, the Russian forces, who were, until 15 October 2008, the UN Peacekeeping force, are now an occupying force that are doing nothing to prevent these continuing atrocities. Moreover, the increasing garrisoning of Russian troops close to the cease-fire line has actually resulted in the loss of locals land for defensive positions and the constant looting of local houses for furniture and food; a practice frequently done at gunpoint.
The United Nations Military Observers in the region are entirely unarmed and are also reguarly prevented from carrying out their duties by the drunken and aggressive objections of the Abkhaz Security Posts. As such, the local populace is now feeling that they have no protection whatsoever from the extortion, illegal and arbitary fines, harassment and kidnapping practices by the local militia.
The United Nations Mission is therefore a toothless organisation that does not appear to have the political will to make a difference in the region and its continued presence in the region must now be in question when the current "Technical Rollover" of the Mission's mandate is due for review on 15 February 2009.
