Bagapsh Accuses UNOMIG of Distorting Clash

Sergey Bagapsh, the Abkhaz leader, has accused UN observers of distorting the facts and attempting to show that the September 20 clash occurred on Georgian-controlled territory.

?That is why UN observers have been banned from traveling to the scene without an Abkhaz or Russian peacekeeper escort,? Apsnipress news agency quoted Bagapsh as saying at a news conference in Sokhumi on September 24.

Sokhumi claims that the clash occurred on its territory, while Tbilisi says Interior Ministry forces intercepted an Abkhaz group of saboteurs in Georgia proper.

A quadripartite Joint Fact-Finding Group (JFFG), involving the Georgian and Abkhaz sides, as well as Russian peacekeepers, was convened to probe into the reported clash. The group is led by the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG).

Bagapsh also said that the September 20 attack was ?an act of terrorism.? Two Abkhaz militiamen were killed, two wounded and seven others captured (one of the  captured is wounded). The Georgians sustained no casualties. 

Bagapsh has alleged that the two dead Abkhaz militiamen were brutally beaten and then executed. ?One of them was stabbed and the other shot in the head at close range,? he said.

?This is banditry,? Bagapsh said. ?Georgia is a terrorist state, an aggressor, which can cause large-scale war.?

He also said that the attack took place after Abkhaz border guards had returned to camp from a training exercise.

There were a total of 23 border guards in the camp, Bagapsh said, including two instructors, both of whom were killed.

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