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Sergei Shamba, Abkhazia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, was denied a U.S. visa to represent his country at the United Nations

SUKHUMI (Tiraspol Times) - Abkhazian Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba was barred from giving a personal address to the United Nations. Despite an invitation, he was prevented from arriving in New York by the U.S. authorities who for political reasons denied an entry visa to him and only allowed the representatives of the Republic of Georgia to speak.

A spokesman for the U.S. State Department claimed that Sergei Shamba had voluntarily withdrawn his application, and that this supposedly was the reason the visa was not issued. This allegation was immediately denounced by Shamba himself as a lie, with the Abkhaz foreign minister insisting that he was denied the U.S. entry visa.

Foreign Minister Shamba refuted the claim by the United States alleging that he voluntarily decided not to apply for a U.S. entry visa to take part in UN Security Council hearings on the Georgian-Abkhaz settlement process.

" - I have been denied a visa at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. But the embassy only carries out orders, and it is in fact the U.S. Department of State that denied me the visa," Shamba told Interfax on Wednesday.

" - All those concerned are aware of this situation," Shamba said, referring directly to the State Department.

The flag of the Republic of Abkhazia flying over Sukhumi, the unrecognized country's capital.

Russia, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council had requested that the U.S. grant a visa to Abkhazia's Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba so he could appear before the 15-nation council in New York to plead for the case of Abkhazia independence from Georgia. Russia's request was supported by the United Kingdom, also a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

"Serious diplomatic and political mistake"

Russia's U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin, speaking to reporters, charged that the United States had made a "serious diplomatic and political mistake" in refusing to allow Abkhazia's "foreign minister" to come to New York.

Churkin likened the situation in Abkhazia with that of Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians demand independence from Serbia. The U.S. supports Kosovo independence and was quick in allowing Kosovo Albanian officials to attend a UN council meeting in New York last week. But the U.S. rejected visas for the official representatives of Abkhazia when they wanted to do the same.

" - We have to talk to both sides," Churkin said, adding, "In the case of the Kosovo conflict, if the international community had listened only to the Serb side, I am sure there would be no Ahtisaari plan at all."

The Martti Ahtisaari plan advocates independence for Kosovo, putting the principle of self-determination over the principle of territorial integrity.

" - In order to have an objective understanding of the situation in Abkhazia we should listen to the other side," Churkin said, adding, "The fact that it did not happen is disrespectful to the Security Council members."

" - This is clearly a fact of violating the spirit of the obligation of the host country," Churkin said. "We think it was a rather serious diplomatic and political mistake." The Security Council, he said, should listen to both sides."

" - As I mentioned in the Council meeting today, can you imagine what would be the situation if in the case of the Kosovo conflict, all those years the international community were listening only to the Serb side?"

The UN Security Council president, British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, backed the Russian request for Shamba's visa.

Official condemnation of a U.S. policy which is seen as biased

With the United States unwilling to observe long-established rules of customary diplomatic conduct, Russia's Ministry for Foreign Affairs issued an official condemnation of the U.S. refusal to grant an entry visa to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia Sergei Shamba. In the statement, Russia's Foreign Ministry rejects the policy of the U.S. State Department, which causes serious harm to the progress of the settlement of the Abkhaz-Georgian conflict.

"The Abkhaz side is one of the officially recognized parties of the conflict and has a full right, along with Georgia, to directly convey their views on the resolution provisions to the international participants in the settlement process", said the Russian Foreign Ministry.

"Depriving the Abkhaz side of such an opportunity, the United States are trying to put the parties of the conflict into unequal positions and thereby influence the course of negotiations. This attitude is not conducive to balanced approaches to the harmonization of the content of a new resolution, it undermines the level of understanding in a group of states contributing to the UN Secretary-General in his efforts to achieve a peaceful solution to the Abkhaz-Georgian conflict, and can seriously compound the problem of the negotiating process", said Russia.

"A private meeting of the representative of one of the internationally recognized parties of the conflict with the members of the UN Security Council is an inalienable right of any member of the Council, Russia in this case. The United States may, of course, decide whether to take part in the event or not, but preventing it by the non-visa is nothing but a gross abuse of the host country of the UN", the commentary notes.

For most of this week, the Foreign Ministers of three unrecognized countries have been meeting in Sukhumi, the capital of Abhazia. In a joint statement, Pridnestrovie (also known unofficially as Transnistria) along with South Ossetia and Abkhazia asked the internationally community to include them in conflict settlement talks on equal terms with the other sides in their unresolved territorial conflicts. The three believe that it is important that their voices are heard in questions related directly to the future of their populations.

See also:
» Abkhazia excluded from conflict talks; US pleased [1]
» US blocks Abkhazia from UN talks on its own future [2]

On the web:
» Abkhazia's address to the UN (delivered in absentia) [3]