
Sokhumi Protests Election Campaign in Gali
Posters of presidential candidate Mikheil Saakashvili were torn down in the Gali district of breakaway Abkhazia by the local Abkhaz administration, an Abkhaz official said on December 13.
Georgian media sources reported on December 12 that Saakashvili election posters had gone up in some villages in the predominantly Georgian-populated Gali district.
Ruslan Kishmaria, the Abkhaz leader’s envoy to Gali, said in comments posted on the Abkhaz leader’s website, that the Georgian side was stirring up trouble by involving Gali in the election campaign.
“The Georgian authorities want to provoke conflict between the citizens of Abkhazia living in Gali and the Abkhaz central authorities,” he said.
Meanwhile, Nino Burjanadze, the acting Georgian president, referring to alleged official intimidation of ethnic Georgians in the region, warned the Abkhaz side to show restraint. Speaking at a cabinet session on December 13, she said she wouldn’t “recommend anyone taking punitive measures in the region, because it will trigger an appropriate response from the international community and our response will be very loud.”