Monday, October 29, 2007, #206 (1473)

Captured Abkhaz fighters released as Tbilisi and Sokhumi renew dialogue
By Nino Mumladze

Weekly talks resume as Bakradze follows through on his promised “goodwill gesture”

Fulfilling Tbilisi’s promised goodwill gesture, a Tbilisi court ruled on October 27 to release seven Abkhaz militiamen captured in a deadly September 20 clash in Upper Abkhazia.

The court first passed five-year suspended sentences for the detained and annulled their two-month pretrial detentions. The militiamen, accompanied by UN mission representatives, arrived in the de facto secessionist capital of Sokhumi by the end of the day.

At the close of an October 25 Sokhumi meeting with Shamba—the first since dialogue was broken off last year—the Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution, Davit Bakradze, announced the prisoner release, a “goodwill gesture” which would “undoubtedly contribute to the improvement of the general climate [of relations].”

Separatist leadership saw a concession, not philanthropy.

“The release of the serviceman is the result of serious international pressure on Georgia and the preliminary UN findings unilaterally proving that the crime [referring to the September 20 clash] was committed on Abkhazian territory,” read an October 27 statement on de facto Abkhaz foreign minister Sergey Shamba’s website.

Bakradze insisted otherwise.
“Why are we releasing the [Abkhaz militiamen]?” Bakradze asked rhetorically, speaking with Rustavi 2. “With today’s gesture, Georgia shows everyone that our aim is not hostility with the Abkhazians, and that we are ready to stretch out a hand of friendship to them.”
At the same time, he noted that Georgia’s actions in the September 20 incident demonstrate that any “provocation” would be met with an “adequate” response.

The September 20 clash added fuel to already fiery relations between Tbilisi and breakaway Sokhumi. That day, somewhere in or near Tbilisi-controlled Upper Abkhazia, Georgian forces killed two former Russian officers and captured seven Abkhaz fighters under their command.

The details are disputed.

A UNOMIG progress report, released October 11, largely backed the Abkhaz side’s claim that the Georgian force made a foray into territory under their control. The incident occurred where Sokhumi claims it did, the report stated, about 300 meters from the administrative border.

The report also stated that the two former Russian officers were shot at close or point-blank range.
However, the report also mentioned Georgian evidence which “strongly suggested” that the Abkhaz group had been deep inside Georgian-controlled territory before the clash, but emphasized that “UNOMIG is not in a position to authenticate that information.”

Yet relations between Tbilisi and the de facto authorities look poised to regain their footing, as Bakradze and Shamba agreed in Sokhumi to resume the “Chuburkhinji sessions” of weekly dialogue.
“We think in the nearest future we’ll start a series of regular meetings aimed at improving security and creating safety guarantees for the people residing in Gali district,” Bakradze told Rustavi 2 on October 25.

The weekly quadripartite meetings in the Gali district village of Chuburkhinji, bringing Georgian, Abkhaz, Russian and UN representatives to the table, were cut off after Tbilisi took control of upper Kodori Gorge in the wake of an armed insurrection there.

“We deem it necessary to collaborate towards a far more stable situation in Gali district. We came to the mutual idea that it’s necessary to resume the quadripartite meetings that we always used to hold,” Shamba said.



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