Translated material
Kidnapped while on duty
Russian peacekeepers were captured by relatives of hostages
Russian "blue helmets", three officers and a private of the CIS Collective Peacekeeping Forces in Abkhazia, were kidnapped on Monday evening in the village of Otobaya, Gali region. Their car was blocked near checkpoint 207 by a group of masked armed men, after which the peacekeepers were “escorted” in an unknown direction. It is still unclear why the military personnel did not resist.The flow of conflicting information about what happened was brought together by the chairman of the Council of Ministers of Abkhazia in exile, functioning in Tbilisi, Londer Tsaava. Russian peacekeepers became prisoners of relatives of two Georgians (Goginava and Ordzhomia), whom a few days ago a patrol of “blue helmets” in the village of Primorskoye, Gali region, handed over to the Abkhazians on suspicion of involvement in the partisan movement.
On Monday, while the Georgians were kidnapping Russian peacekeepers, Eduard Shevardnadze in Brussels criticized from the rostrum of the European Parliament the activities of the contingent brought into the conflict zone in 1994. The President of Georgia said that peacekeepers today are not so “zealous”, do not contribute to the return of refugees and are no longer perceived as a neutral, but as a party participating in the conflict, therefore their current mandate has exhausted itself and needs to be expanded. The incident in the village of Otobaya happened completely inappropriately for the Georgian leader. Eduard Shevardnadze sent Interior Minister Koba Narchemashvili and representatives of the MGB leadership to negotiations in Western Georgia, in the village of Anaklia.
Londer Tsaava said that the lives of the Russian hostages are not in danger, but their release is possible only as a result of an exchange for two Georgians. According to Georgian police, one of the captives is being held by Abkhazians in the Gali region, the other is hospitalized in Sukhumi, as he was injured during detention.
The commander of the Georgian partisan association "Forest Brothers" David Shengelia denied the involvement of his people in the attack on Russian peacekeepers. He said that he learned about what happened after the fact, and that was because tipsy peacekeepers came to Otobaya to free their colleagues. At the same time, as the head of the Sukhumi security service Zurab Agumava said, the kidnappers got in touch and reported that “the captured peacekeepers are in the Zugdidi region of Georgia with the parents of militants of the Georgian partisan formation “Forest Brothers” detained by the peacekeepers. The Russian side asked Sukhumi to consider the possibility of releasing these Georgians; the Abkhaz security officers expressed their readiness to provide “any assistance.” Yesterday evening, the Abkhaz authorities released two militants and sent them, accompanied by peacekeepers, to the Gali region. It was assumed that an exchange could take place already at night.
For his part, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for the Georgian-Abkhaz settlement, Dieter Boden, noted that the kidnapping of the peacekeepers occurred in anticipation of the resumption of patrolling in the Kodori Gorge, scheduled for March 20. Monitoring of this region, where in October the Abkhaz fought with the Gelayevites and Georgian partisans, should have entailed the intensification of the Georgian-Abkhaz negotiation process.