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UN Security Council Condemns Abduction of Observers in Georgia
The United Nations Security Council condemned the abduction of two UN military observers in Georgia Monday, December 11, and demanded the immediate release of the hostages.
The demands came after the 15-member Security Council was briefed on the incident by UN officials.
Sergei Lavrov of Russia, council president for the month, said, "The members of the council strongly condemn this unacceptable act as a manifestation of international terrorism."
The two military observers, part of a small UN peacekeeping contingent in Georgia, were seized on Sunday by unidentified gunmen near the village of Verkhnyaya Lata, which is under the control of the breakaway region of Abkhazia.
A UN contingent of 100 observers is monitoring a truce between Georgia and Abkhazia, which proclaimed itself a separate state after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
UN observers in Georgia have been captured several times in the past, but they have been freed without conditions. The Government of Georgia has pledged to do all it can to secure the observers' release.
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