About 250 uniformed Georgian personnel with Interior Ministry insignia have been observed in Tbilisi-controlled upper Kodori Gorge in breakaway Abkhazia as a result of monitoring carried out jointly by UN observers and Russian peacekeepers on December 13-16, the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) said in a statement on December 22.
?The patrol did not observe any deployment of heavy weapons,? the statement said.
The presence of police forces in upper Kodori Gorge is technically not a violation of the 1994 Moscow cease-fire agreement, which bans the deployment of military troops in the area.
In upper Kodori Gorge the patrol monitored the de-commissioning and destruction of an array of small arms ammunition, rockets, shells and grenades, which, according to the Georgian Interior Ministry, were part of the weaponry seized from local militia groups during the July 2006 operations.
UNOMIG also said that ?only time constraints? prevented the team of observers from visiting all parts of the upper Kodori valley.
Since the July operation the Abkhaz and Russian sides have claimed that Georgia has military troops in upper Kodori Gorge. Officials in Sokhumi say that they will resume talks with the Georgian side only after Tbilisi pulls out its forces from upper Kodori Gorge.
-
-
-
-
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)