Georgia.

The Security Council on 8 May called upon the parties to the conflict in Georgia, particularly the Abkhaz side, to "intensify the search for a peaceful solution by further expanding their contacts", and asked the Secretary-General to "make available all appropriate support if so requested by the parties".

Through a statement by Council President Park Soo Gil of the Republic of Korea, it also expressed full support for the Secretary-General's intention to convene a meeting with both sides to "map out the areas where concrete political progress can be made". It encouraged the Secretary-General to explore the idea of revitalizing the Coordinating Commission, set up in May 1994, and establishing expert groups on questions of mutual interest. It welcomed his intention to appoint a resident Special Representative, as a successor to his current Special Envoy for Georgia, and strengthen the political element of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG).

The Council stressed the primary responsibility of the parties for reinvigorating the peace process and reaffirmed its full support for a more active role of the United Nations, with the assistance of the Russian Federation as facilitator, to achieve a comprehensive political settlement.

The Council remained "deeply concerned at the continued deterioration of the security conditions in the Gall region", including acts of violence by armed groups, indiscriminate laying of mines and armed robbery, and the resulting deterioration of the safety and security of the local populations, of the refugees and displaced persons returning to the region, and of personnel of UNOMIG and the Collective Peacekeeping Forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). It condemned the acts of violence which had led to the loss of life of the members of the CIS peacekeeping force.

In other developments, Major-General Harun-Ar-Rashid of Bangladesh on 1 May succeeded Major-General Per Kallstrom of Sweden, who had completed his assignment on 30 April and returned to the service of his Government.

Situation still dangerous

"The situation in the UNOMIG area continues to be dangerous and risks for the observers cannot be totally ruled out", Secretary-General Kofi Annan reported on 25 April. Mines continued to "prevent humanitarian organizations from operating freely in the Gall sector and to threaten civilian activities in the Gumista River area, north of Sukhumi, and parts of the Kodori Valley", he said.

The recently established United Nations office for the protection and promotion of human rights in Abkhazia had begun its work and the Abkhaz authorities had "shown readiness to work with it", the Secretary-General went on. It already had positive results, such as the creation of a grass-roots organization for human rights and democracy in Abkhazia, and the establishment by the Abkhaz leader, Vladislav Ardzinba, of a human rights commission to cooperate with the UN office.

In a 1 April letter to the Secretary-General, Permanent Representative Sergey Lavrov of the Russian Federation transmitted the decision adopted in Moscow on 28 March by the CIS Council of Heads of State to extend the mandate of the Collective Peacekeeping Forces in the conflict zone in Abkhazia to 31 July or until one of the parties asks for its termination.

In a 28 April communication to the Secretary-General, Permanent Representative Peter Chkheidze of Georgia transmitted a letter from President Eduard Shevardnadze, in which the President stated that the role of the United Nations in the solution of the conflict should be invigorated, and called on it to consider sending experts to Georgia to make a "full examination of the facts of grave crimes, including ethnic cleansing" since the Abkhaz territory was inaccessible to the Georgian side.