Tbilisi Denies Russian Participation in Kodori Monitoring

In a statement issued on August 10 the Georgian Foreign Ministry said that Tbilisi considers it absolutely unacceptable for Russian peacekeepers to participate in the monitoring of upper Kodori Gorge.

?The involvement of the peacekeeping forces in the monitoring process, aside from purely legal aspects, is absolutely unacceptable out of moral and practical considerations, given the distrust for the so-called peacekeepers that runs deep in Georgia as a whole, and, in particular, among the ethnically Georgian population of Abkhazia,? the statement reads.

The Georgian Foreign Ministry says that the Georgian side ?has a solid legal basis to accept UN monitoring and deny or grant this right to Russian peacekeepers at its own discretion.?

Tbilisi also demands that monitoring  be simultaneously carried out in the lower part of the gorge, which is controlled by the Abkhaz separatist authorities.

?The Moscow Agreement of 14 May 1994 [on Ceasefire and Separation of Forces] entitles the Georgian side to claim such monitoring, since this document refers to the whole of Kodori Gorge,? the statement reads.

The Georgian side reminds Moscow that Kodori Gorge is not part of the security zone and therefore any movement of peacekeepers through the territory should be coordinated with the Georgian side.

UN observers will be able to inspect the Kodori gorge starting from August 20.

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