Russian TV Airs Wanted Rebel Warlord’s Message

In a video message aired by Russia’s state-owned Channel One on March 20, wanted warlord Emzar Kvitsiani demanded the Georgian authorities to withdraw troops from the upper Kodori Gorge, as well as to immediately release his sister Nora Kvitsiani and several of his co-fighters, who were arrested after the Georgian troops took over the gorge in last July. 
    
“Otherwise, the Kodori gorge will be lost and the entire responsibility will lie on U.S. President George Bush and his governor in Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili,” Kvitsiani said.

He said that the video message was taped on March 15 of 2007 in the village of Chkhalta in the upper Kodori Gorge. Tbilisi-backed Abkhaz government-in-exile has now headquarters in this village.

“Today Georgia has not the worst enemy than Saakashvili and his government. Therefore, my dear compatriots, I call on you to unite in order to expel this American creature from Georgia,” Kvitsiani said.

This is a third video message by Emzar Kvitsiani. In his first one, aired by the Tbilisi-based Imedi television last September, Kvitsiani threatened to launch a partisan warfare in the upper Kodori Gorge against the Georgian governmental forces. In the second one, aired by the Abkhaz television last November, Kvitsiani claimed responsibility for the October 25 shelling of the upper Kodori Gorge.

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