Shevardnadze Guarantees Security of Abkhaz Delegation

Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said in his radio broadcast on October 6 that security of the Abkhazian delegation during the upcoming talks in Tbilisi would be guaranteed. 

?I welcome a dialogue between the Georgian and Abkhazian sides, which has already yielded a definite positive result. As for the security issues, Tbilisi has never created such a danger. During the visit of Abkhaz [de facto] President Vladislav Ardzinba in 1997, the situation was calm and he faced no problems with security,? Shevardnadze said.

The Georgian-Abkhazian talks scheduled for September 23 in Tbilisi were postponed due to technical reasons, as claimed by the Abkhaz representatives.

However, unofficial reports said, de facto Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba and aide of the de facto President Astamur Tania did not arrive because of the statement by Tamaz Nadareishvili, head of the Tbilisi-based Abkhaz government in exile.

On the eve of the talks Nadareishvili said the Abkhazian de facto authorities should be arrested as soon as they arrived in Tbilisi.   

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