Russia has brought to an end the nearly 16-year-old U.N. observer mission that monitored a cease-fire between Georgia and its breakaway Abkhazia region. Russia exercised its veto power in the U.N. Security Council _ toppling a Western plan to extend the life of the U.N. mission for another year, or even two more weeks, to work out a compromise. The vote late Monday was 10-1 with four abstentions _ China, Vietnam, Libya and Uganda. The mission's mandate expired at 0400 GMT Tuesday, (midnight Monday in New York), requiring about 130 military observers and more than a dozen police to leave. Both the name _ the U.N. Observer Mission in Georgia _ and references to Georgia's territorial sovereignty were sticking points, according to a report of The Associated Press. «It is understandable,» Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday, «that in the new political and legal conditions most of the names and terms previously used in the old documents are inapplicable.» U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who had recommended keeping the mission, said it would cease operations Tuesday despite his «regrets» at the lack of agreement that prompted its abrupt demise. «This mission was helping defuse tension and deter further conflict,» British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Tuesday. «Its withdrawal will affect the day-to-day lives of people living in conflict areas.»
