STATEMENT: Georgia's Abkhazia less secure without monitors: U.N. (reuters.com)

By Matt RobinsonTBILISI (Reuters) - Failure to extend the United Nation's monitoring presence in Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region would undermine stability and leave ethnic Georgians there unprotected, the mission head said on Friday.
The mission's mandate expires on June 15, and the U.N. Security Council is split between the West and Russia over the wording of a resolution to extend it.
Russia wants it to reflect Abkhazia's assertion that it is an independent state, recognized by the Kremlin and secured by Russian forces since last year's five-day war between Russia and Georgia over the rebel region of South Ossetia.full article >>>