Okruashvili Comments on Kodori

Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili said on August 7 that the Georgian side has the right to maintain restricted number of armament in upper Kodori gorge, which is not a violation of the 1994 Moscow agreement on cease-fire and separation of forces.

Okruashvili, who spoke with reporters in upper Kodori gorge, also said that currently the Georgian law enforcers are ?preparing ground to let the UN observers to monitor situation in Kodori gorge.?

Okruashvili has reportedly spent three days in upper Kodori gorge and returned to Tbilisi late on August 7.

He said that currently there are about 40 servicemen from the Defense Ministry?s engineer units in Kodori to assist in reconstruction of bridges in the gorge.

?Russians will have nominal role [in monitoring of the Kodori gorge]. Monitoring is possible but not with the Russian helicopters? we will set provisions of this monitoring,? Okruashvili said.

Defense Minister Okruashili said on July 31 that Tbilisi will agree to the monitoring of upper Kodori Gorge only after an international inspection of the Gudauta military base in breakaway Abkhazia takes place. 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.

Monitoring of upper Kodori has not been undertaken since June 2003, when UN observers and their interpreter were kidnapped by gunmen while patrolling the gorge. The Abkhaz and Russian sides have pushed for resumption of Kodori inspection after the Georgian side sent troops there to crack down on rebel militia groups.

The Georgian Defense Minister also said that provocations are taking place almost every day in Kodori gorge, as ?fire is opened from the Russian peacekeepers? checkpoints.?

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