Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergey Shamba has warned foreign diplomats not to travel to the Tbilisi-controlled upper Kodori Gorge, citing security concerns.
?The current situation there clearly shows that this area is unsafe for the visits and activities of foreign missions. With this in mind, we do not recommend diplomats and international organizations to visit the gorge,? Shamba said in an interview, which was posted on the Abkhaz leader?s official web site on March 29.
His remarks come after the reported shelling of the area which occurred on March 11. Georgian authorities claimed that the gorge had been shelled by Russian army helicopters and Abkhaz artillery.
A joint fact-finding group (JFFG), consisting of UN observers, Russian peacekeepers, as well as representatives from the Georgian and Abkhaz sides, subsequently traveled to the gorge. No final conclusions, however, have been unveiled as yet.
Shamba’s warning about travelling to the gorge was also accompanied by a reiteration that Sokhumi would not enter into dialogue with international organizations or diplomatic missions that had established contact with the Abkhaz government-in-exile there.
?Having the so-called Georgian authorities of Abkhazia in the upper Kodori Gorge,” he said, “is just one of the ways in which Georgia continues to destabilize the situation in the region”.
Speaking in Moscow on March 28, Abkhaz leader Sergey Bagapsh said that the removal of the ?puppet government? from upper Kodori was a precondition for direct talks with Tbilisi.
President Saakashvili, however, speaking at a session of the National Security Council on March 26, firmly ruled this out.
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)