Monday, 05 July 2004

RUSSIAN PEACEKEEPERS ATTACKED IN ABKHAZIA

Published in News Digest

By empty (7/5/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Russian servicemen from the collective peacekeeping forces in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone came under fire on two occasions last weekend, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Vyacheslav Sedov told Interfax on Monday. The peacekeepers\' 221st post located outside the village of Saberio near the Abkhaz-Georgian administrative border was attacked late on July 3. \"The peacekeepers came under fire from the Georgian side of the border.
Russian servicemen from the collective peacekeeping forces in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone came under fire on two occasions last weekend, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Vyacheslav Sedov told Interfax on Monday. The peacekeepers\' 221st post located outside the village of Saberio near the Abkhaz-Georgian administrative border was attacked late on July 3. \"The peacekeepers came under fire from the Georgian side of the border. They had to open fire in response to avert provocation. No servicemen were injured,\" Sedov said. In addition, the 304th post manned by Russian peacekeepers came under attack late on July 4. The incident occurred near the village of Erisukali. A commission comprising representatives of the collective peacekeeping forces in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone, the UN mission and the Georgian authorities has been set up to investigate the incidents, Sedov said. He said that the commission had confirmed the shooting. Meanwhile, Georgia has launched a protest to the command of Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia. Tbilisi protested against shooting from a peacekeeping checkpoint near Saberio early on July 4, head of Georgian peacekeepers\' office in Abkhazia Valery Japaridze told Interfax on Monday. \"The shooting went on for about 20 minutes. Nobody was killed or wounded,\" he said. \"We asked the peacekeepers\' commander for explanations and we were told that armed people had attacked the checkpoint,\" Japaridze said. \"The tripartite investigation commission did not find any traces of the attack on the checkpoint on Sunday,\" he said. The Russian Defense Ministry thinks that the alleged shooting incidents targeting Russian peacekeeping checkpoints in the Georgian- Abkhaz conflict zone proves weakness on the part of the Georgian authorities. \"These are ordinary forays of bandits, which show that the Georgian authorities do not control the situation on their territory and bandits feel free,\" Army Commander-in-Chief, Deputy Defense Minister Gen. of the Army Nikolai Kormiltsev told Interfax on Monday. \"In fact, there were not attacks. Unknown people fired at the checkpoints, and international observers registered the shooting,\" he said. \"We have no grounds to believe that tension is building up on the Georgian-Abkhaz administrative border. The Georgian authorities should take more active measures against criminals,\" Kormiltsev said. (Interfax)
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The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst is a biweekly publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, a Joint Transatlantic Research and Policy Center affiliated with the American Foreign Policy Council, Washington DC., and the Institute for Security and Development Policy, Stockholm. For 15 years, the Analyst has brought cutting edge analysis of the region geared toward a practitioner audience.

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