Georgian Minister Under Fire in Kodori Gorge
// Tbilisi Sees the Hand of Moscow in the Events
Georgian Internal Affairs Minister Vano Merabishvili and his companions came under fire yesterday morning during an official visit on the orders of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to the Georgian-controlled upper portion of the Kodori Gorge. No one was hurt in the attack. According to Tbilisi, the shots came from the lower portion of the gorge, which is controlled by Abkhazia. Mr. Merabishvili hurried to call the assassination attempt the result of "Vladimir Putin's recent statements." The Georgian side is hinting that the attack was the work of soldiers from "Russian and Abkhazian units," but the Abkhazian authorities are placing the blame on Emzar Kvitsiani, the former governor of the region who has vowed to stymie the Georgian government's attempts to crush the rebellion in the gorge.
Mr. Merabishvili appeared on Georgian television later that day and announced that the shots had come from the Abkhazian side of the gorge and that they were fired using a "Grad" launcher possessed "only by Russian and Abkhazian troops." He strenuously denied reports from observers that the attack may have been carried out by Emzar Kvitsiani's supporters shooting from nearby trees, preferring to lay the blame on Abkhazia and Russia. "This is a provocation by Abkhazian and Russian forces, and it suspiciously coincided with warning statements from Vladimir Putin. I do not rule out the possibility that the rounds were fired by [people] who were emboldened by these statements," he said. He did not specify to which of Mr. Putin's comments he was referring.
During yesterday's question-and-answer session "Direct Line with the President of the Russian Federation," Mr. Putin ascribed the worsening relations between Moscow and Tbilisi to Georgia's militarization: "Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Russia are all discomfited by the militarization of Georgia. And the worsening of relations between Russia and Georgia is connected with that, with the preparations being made to resolve the South Ossetian and Abkhazian problems by means of force." He made these comments, however, after the attack on Mr. Merabishvili had already occurred.
Commenting on the incident, Georgian officials said that peace has been preserved in the Kodori Gorge and that there will be no new deployments of Georgian troops to the area. Georgia currently has 500 police officers in the gorge, a number which it claims does not violate either the 1994 Moscow accords or the recent UN resolution concerning Georgia's presence in the gorge.
Vladimir Novikov (Tbilisi)
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 26, 2006
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