UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- After deadly violence in the past weeks between Abkhaz separatists and Georgian authorities, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is calling for dialogue.
"The recent acts of violence in the conflict zone are a cause for concern," Ban said Monday in a report to the Security Council. "I condemn them and urge the parties to work together in identifying and bringing to justice those responsible. I appeal to both sides to engage in dialogue to prevent an escalation of the situation on the ground."
Three members of the Abkhaz militia were killed in December and an attack on a Georgian checkpoint Jan.5 killed one policeman.
The U.N. Mission in Georgia says it will investigate the killings. As of January, the UNOMIG staff consists of 127 military observers and 14 police officers who are active in training and humanitarian aid in the region. They also patrol the buffer zone which keeps the Abkhaz and Georgian sides apart.
"I continue to believe that there can be no lasting settlement without a determined effort by both sides to seek, through genuine negotiations and in deeds, to establish a different kind of relationship between them," he added.
In Abkhazia, in the northwest of Georgia, fighting forced close to 300,000 refugees to flee their homes in 1992.
Since Georgia's independence in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the country has gone through periods of violence related to the separatist aspirations of Abkhazia, which has close ties to Moscow.
