Troops Pull out from Pankisi

Units of the Georgian Internal Troops have been pulled out from north-western mountainous Pankisi gorge. ?Patrol Police will replace troops there,? Guram Donadze, Interior Ministry spokesman told Civil Georgia on January 21.

Checkpoints of the Interior Troops were also removed from the gorge. Interior Ministry troops were deployed in the gorge in 2002, after Russia?s accusations over presence of Chechen militants in Pankisi.

Currently, along with the local population, around 2.600 Chechen refugees also live in the gorge since 1999, when second war broke out in Chechnya.