Interior Minister Comments on Kodori Shelling
Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said while speaking with Rustavi 2 television via phone from the Tbilisi-controlled upper Kodori Gorge that the area was shelled in the morning on October 25 from the Abkhaz-controlled territories.
?Three rocket shells fired from GRAD [multiple missile system] exploded in a vicinity of Zemo Azhara village [in upper Kodori Gorge] at about 10:30 am. Shots were fired from Tkvarcheli, where military exercises are carried out by the so called Abkhaz Ministry of Defense. The shells dropped in a kilometer and a half away from the settlement,? Vano Merabishvili said and added that shots were fired about 15-20 kilometers away from Zemo Azhara village.
Earlier, the Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Khizanishvili said that shots were fired at a location where Merabishvili was.
But Merabishvili said, when asked whether he was a target of shelling or not, that ?it is hard to say.?
?But what I can say is that it was a provocation staged by the Abkhaz and Russian forces. This provocation has coincided with the very alarming statements made by President Putin today [on October 25]. It seems that separatists were encouraged by these statements of Putin,? Merabishvili said.
Putin commented on Georgia during his nationally televised Q&A session, which started by the noon, hour and a half after the reported shelling of upper Kodori Gorge.
But the Abkhaz side has already denied having links to the incident. Breakaway Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergey Shamba told Imedi and Rustavi 2 televisions on October 25 that Emzar Kvitsiani, a wanted rebel warlord, could have been behind the incident.
?Kvitsiani himself announced about launch of a partisan warfare [against the governmental troops in upper Kodori Gorge]? and we all know that shootings in upper Kodori occur on a daily bases,? Sergey Shamba said.
Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili also said that he frequently visits upper Kodori Gorge to inspect the Interior Ministry troops stationed there, ?as well as to oversee ongoing reconstruction activities here.?
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