Most of Kodori Under Control as Rebels Remain Besieged

Rebel warlord Emzar Kvitsiani tried to break through a siege of government forces and escape into Abkhaz-controlled territory, but ?our law enforcers control the area,? Giorgi Arveladze, chief of the Georgian President?s Administration, said late on July 26.

Officials say that shootout has currently ceased in the troubled gorge and no drastic change of the situation is expected overnight.

Arveladze said most of the villages in the upper Kodori Gorge are now under government forces? control, including Sakeni, Zemo and Kvemo Omarishara, Gentsvisi and Chkhalta. The latter was a stronghold of the militia group Monadire (Hunter), led by former local official Kvitsiani.

?There are only few areas where law enforcers are encountering resistance, including the village of Zemo Azhara,? Arveladze said.

MP Givi Targamadze, the chairman of the parliamentary committee for defense and security, said that the government forces are expected to take over remaining three villages currently under the militias? control by tomorrow.

?There is currently no shootout in the area and the operation is not active,? MP Targamadze told Rustavi 2 television at approximately 11 pm local time on July 26. 
 
Officials conformed the injury of only two Interior Ministry officers.

?There are no other casualties in the law enforcement agencies.? Chief of the President?s Administration Giorgi Arveladze said. He declined to comment on casualties among militia members.

?There is not a single casualty among civilians,? MP Targamadze said.

MP Targamadze noted that the governmental forces have seized ?a large number of ammunition and arms? in the gorge, including anti-aircraft missile systems.

He also said that the area where Kvitsiani is currently besieged is cut off from the road that links upper Kodori with the lower part of the gorge, which is controlled by the Abkhaz secessionist authorities.

?We have warned the Abkhaz side not to try to assist Kvitsiani, otherwise appropriate measures will be taken,? MP Targamadze said.

Officials hailed the current operation as ?very successful? and noted that Georgia has ?very strong law enforcement agencies.?

Arveladze also noted that the local population of upper Kodori gorge is closely cooperating with law enforcers.

Fighting erupted in the Kodori gorge at approximately 4 pm after local rebel warlord Emzar Kvitsiani refused to surrender.
 
Reports say that Kvitsiani and up to 60 of his fighters are currently besieged in a cave near the villages of Chkhalta and Zemo Azhara.

State Minister for Euro-Atlantic Integration Issues Giorgi Baramidze said that Georgian security forces intercepted radio communication in which Kvitsiani was urging Russian peacekeeping troops to send a helicopter to evacuate him from the area.
 
Meanwhile, influential parliamentarian Giga Bokeria said on July 26 that Georgian police forces will remain in upper Kodori Gorge to protect rule and order there following the completion of the ongoing operation.

Emzar Kvitsiani?s paramilitary group Monadire (Hunter), which recently announced its defiance towards the central authorities, was in full control of upper Kodori Gorge until recently, and no official police forces were stationed there.

The decision of the Georgian authorities to permanently deploy police forces in Kodori will most likely trigger protests from the Abkhaz side.

But officials in Tbilisi say that the 1994 Moscow agreement between Tbilisi and Sokhumi on cease-fire and separation of forces only bans the deployment of armed forces in Kodori, noting that the provision does not apply to police forces.

MP Targamadze said that after all militia members are disarmed, the Georgian state will exert its full control over upper Kodori Gorge for the first time since the armed conflict in Abkhazia.

?This is a strategic territory, from where a helicopter flight to Sokhumi takes only five minutes,? MP Targamadze said.

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