Possible Ceasing of Russian Peacekeeping Revitalized

The Georgian Parliament will soon discuss ?reasonability of ceasing? Russian peacekeeping operation in the Abkhaz conflict zone, senior lawmakers from the ruling party said on October 30.

The statement comes following the incident in Ganmukhuri, involving a standoff between the Russian peacekeepers and Georgian interior ministry forces, wherein four Georgian police officers were beaten up.

?This was a large-scale and well-organized attack on the Georgian police post,? Givi Targamadze, chairman of the parliamentary committee for defense and security said. ?Parliament will discuss reasonability of ceasing the Russian peacekeeping operation.?

Speaking at a joint news conference late on October 30, MP Targamadze?s deputy, MP Nika Rurua, said that discussion about possible ceasing of peacekeepers’ mandate would be ?very thorough and without any emotions.?

The fact, however, is that last July the Parliament has already instructed the government, as the resolution reads, ?to launch necessary procedures to immediately suspend the so-called peacekeeping operations in Abkhazia and in former South Ossetian Autonomous District and to immediately withdraw the armed forces of the Russian Federation from the territory of Georgia.?

Speaking at the National Security Council on October 30, President Saakashvili stopped short of instructing the government to launch procedures on withdrawal of Russian peacekeeping troops from the Georgia?s conflict zones; he, however, recalled the July, 2006 resolution of the Parliament.

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