Okruashvili: Kodori Monitoring Possible After Gudauta Base Inspection

Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili said on July 31 that Tbilisi will agree to monitoring of upper Kodori Gorge only after an international inspection of the Gudauta military base is carried out in breakaway Abkhazia.

?I have listened to the statement of my Russian counterpart Sergey Ivanov, who said that the monitoring of Kodori Gorge should be carried out. Yes, we agree with this monitoring, but only after the monitoring of Gudauta base is carried out,? Okruashvili said at a news conference in the evening on July 31 after returning to Tbilisi from Kodori Gorge.

Tbilisi is demanding that the Gudauta base be monitored by an independent international party to verify its closure by Russia, as envisaged by a 1999 OSCE Istanbul treaty.

Okruashvili also noted that the anti-criminal operation against rebel warlord Emzar Kvitsiani and his militia in Kodori was carried out by Georgian police forces, and that army units ?only provided logistical assistance? to the police.

?There was a small part of our [the Defense Ministry?s] special purpose unit that was assisting the police, but this unit is no longer there; the unit has been withdrawn from the gorge,? Okruashvili said.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)