Georgia Calls Russia to Avoid Unilateral Actions in the Kodori

(Tbilisi, June 6 2003, Civil Georgia) – At the June 5 meeting with the representatives of the Abkhaz side and the Russian peacekeeping forces in Gali district of breakaway Abkhazia, Georgian Special Affairs Minister Malkhaz Kakabadze called the Russian side to refrain from unilateral actions in Kodori gorge.

After the abduction of the UN observers in Kodori, which is the only part of Abkhazia controlled by the Georgian authorities, officials in Tbilisi fear that the Russian peacekeeping troops deployed in the conflict zone would be dispatched to Kodori gorge. Last April Russian peacekeepers were unilaterally dispatched to the gorge. 

Kakabadze told the reporters today that the peacekeepers were cooperating with the Georgian President?s envoy in the Kodori gorge Emzar Kvitsiani, who was guiding all the activities over the release of the hostages at the scene.

?Foreign forces will become necessary only at the request of the Georgian side?, the Special Affairs Minister added.

Two UN military observers, a paramedic and Georgian interpreter were kidnapped by the unknown armed group on June 5, while the UN mission together with the Russian peacekeepers were monitoring the troubled Kodori gorge.

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