Officials: Volcanic Ash Disrupts Georgia Delegation’s Departure to Poland

Flight ban caused by ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano prevented a group of Georgian government officials and senior lawmakers, including Parliamentary Chairman Davit Bakradze, to depart for Poland to attend memorial service for Polish President plane crash victims in Warsaw on Saturday, officials said.

“It is very unfortunate that we won’t be able to arrive,” Davit Bakradze said in the Tbilisi airport on Saturday.

He said President Saakashvili, who is currently in the United States, still planned to attend funeral of the late Polish President in Krakow. “I hope conditions will be better tomorrow and the President will be able to arrive in Krakow,” Davit Bakradze said.

"Attendance of foreign dignitaries at the memorial service [in Warsaw] was not envisaged, but the Polish side made an exception for the Georgian side and invited a high-level delegation; although, unfortunately the Georgian delegation could not arrive," Konstantine Kavtaradze, Georgia’s ambassador to Poland, told Rustavi 2 TV.

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