UN, July 11 (RIA Novosti) - Military observers and policemen from the UN mission in the Caucasus will complete their withdrawal from the region by the end of the next week, Michele Montas, a spokeswoman for the UN secretary general said.
In June, Russia used its veto to block an extension of the UN observer mission's mandate in Georgia and Abkhazia, in protest against the resolution's failure to recognize "new political and legal circumstances."
Russia, which last year recognized Abkhazia as an independent state, objected to a reference in the draft to Resolution 1808 dated April 2008, which affirms Georgia's "territorial integrity."
The UN mission in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone was deployed in 1993 to oversee a ceasefire following a post-Soviet conflict that resulted in Abkhazia gaining de facto independence.
