(Tbilisi, January 28, 2003. Civil Georgia) – “Meeting of the Russian and Georgian Presidents will be very important and decisive concerning the issue of the Russian peacekeepers’ mandate in the Abkhazian conflict zone,” Nino Burjanadze, Parliamentary Chairperson said in the interview to the Civil Georgia today.
Meeting of Shevardnadze and Putin is anticipated in frames of the informal summit of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Ukraine on January 28-29.
“With the present mandate Russian peacekeepers can not guarantee return of IDPs even in Gali district, thus there is no reason for their presence in the conflict zone,” Nino Burjanadze said.
Parliamentary Chairperson told Civil Georgia that the Russian peacekeepers’ mandate in the conflict zone should be prolong only in case Russia will stop granting Russian citizenship in breakaway Abkhazia and close down railway ling with breakaway region.
“We also want to expand the peacekeepers’ mandate on entire Gali district to enable the IDPs return in Gali. Without fulfillment of these conditions Russian peacekeepers should leave the conflict zone,” Nino Burjanadze said.
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