Russian occupation has turned Georgia’s Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions into territories where murder and torture are unaccounted for, – Kakha Imnadze, Permanent Representative of Georgia to the United Nations made the regarding statement.

He delivered a speech at the open debates of UN Security Council on topic: Collective Action to Improve United Nations Peacekeeping Operations.

He stressed on the importance of peacekeeping operations in global security and changes in coping of facing challenges. Kakha Imnadze talked about experience when UNOMIG mission was stopped in 2009 that became a dangerous precedent in the history.

“The forceful termination of the mandate, preceded by the cessation of the OSCE mission, created a total vacuum of international presence in the occupied territories of Georgia, thus creating the black holes for human rights and “one of the most inaccessible places on earth” as observed by the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights. Russian occupation has turned Georgia’s Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions into territories where murder and torture are unaccounted for, as just resentlly witnessed by the brutal death of Georgian civilian and internally displaced  person Archil Tatunashvili” –  Ambassador Imnadze said.

According to Imnadze, the situation speaks to an urgent need for creating international security arrangements on the ground, as provided by the EU mediated 12 August 2008 Ceasefire Agreement between the Russian Federation and Georgia.

“Progress or even a meaningful discussion on the creation of international security arrangements in the Georgian occupied regions remains elusive, while in the Council the primacy of politics does not allow for the creation of a much needed peacekeeping mandate in the conflict affected territories, where the host country is deprived of its ability to exercise jurisdiction”, – Ambassador said.