Translated material
Investigation in the gorge
Abkhazia suspects Georgia of raid on Kodori
Yesterday, an investigative commission consisting of representatives of the UN, the Georgian and Abkhaz sides, as well as Russian peacekeepers, began studying the incident in the Kodori Gorge of Abkhazia. Tbilisi continues to insist that late on the evening of March 11, several helicopters appeared from Russia and fired at six villages in the region - the only piece of Abkhazia remaining under Georgian control after the 1992-1993 conflict.There were no casualties in the gorge, where approximately two thousand people live. Several buildings were seriously damaged. Yesterday at a government meeting, Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli said that the administration buildings of the Abkhaz authorities in exile, loyal to Tbilisi, and schools should be restored as quickly as possible. Responsible Georgian officials flew to Kodori, as well as the son of the former President of Georgia, 26-year-old Georgiy Gamsakhurdia, who was unexpectedly appointed head of the criminal police of Upper Abkhazia.
The work of the investigative group should be completed by the end of the week, after which, as Vremya Novostei was told by the Georgian Foreign Ministry, a new telephone conversation should take place between the foreign ministers of Georgia and Russia. They spoke for the first time on Monday and expressed mutual concern about what was happening. According to official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Mikhail Kamynin, “it is difficult to characterize what happened in the Kodori Gorge as anything other than the natural result of last year’s complication of the situation there in connection with the entry of Georgian troops and the deployment of the Abkhaz government in exile.” Moscow speaks out for the speedy conclusion of an agreement between Tbilisi and Sukhumi on the non-use of force and security guarantees.
On April 10, the UN Security Council will begin discussing the situation in Abkhazia. As Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said yesterday, it is possible that “this provocation was supposed to create a negative background.” He noted that the perpetrators identified by the monitoring must be punished, which he already discussed with Sergei Lavrov. Georgian media criticize the country's authorities, who so far only promise to shoot down intruder helicopters.
However, the Deputy Minister of Defense of the unrecognized republic of Abkhazia, Harry Kupalba, said that Georgia itself could have carried out shelling of the gorge. He recalled that on Monday night a Georgian Air Force Mi-24 combat helicopter crashed. “For what purpose did he take off and why was there no one else on board except the crew members? The Georgian side did not give answers to these questions,” said Mr. Kupalba. According to him, “by staging the shelling of the gorge, the Georgian authorities pursued the goal of complicating the situation and discrediting the activities of the peacekeeping forces.”
According to the Georgian authorities, the night flight of the combat helicopter was a reaction to the situation in Kodori, when the army was transferred to a barracks position. According to First Deputy Defense Minister Levan Nikoleishvili, the tragedy occurred due to difficult weather conditions when the Mi-24 was flying in a western direction, where Georgian air defense forces were concentrated just in case. The version of Mr. Kupalba about Tbilisi’s involvement in the shelling of the gorge was called “blasphemous” by the Georgian Ministry of Defense “VN”.