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Troops to combat Georgia violence

Mi-8
Mi-8 helicopter similar to this Russian model was shot down this week, killing 10  


TBILISI, Georgia -- Forces are massing around the breakaway Georgian republic of Abkhazia following a flare-up of violence in the Black Sea region.

Russia has said it will deploy soldiers on its border with Abkhazia, while Georgian defence minister David Tevzadze announced on Thursday he had sent troops to protect the population of the government-held Kodor Gorge, in the northwest of the country.

Moscow fears a new front in a war against Chechen rebels now said to have invaded Abkhazia where officials also announced a partial mobilisation of their forces.

Violence in the region began last week when alleged Georgian and Chechen fighters raided a village.

It escalated on Monday, when a helicopter carrying United Nations observers was shot down.

Fourteen villagers were killed on Monday night, The Associated Press reported, and Abkhazia, Georgia and Russia traded accusations about aircraft that bombed the area on Tuesday. No damage or casualties were reported in the bombardment.

The 1992-93 Georgian-Abkhazian war ended in a cease-fire and de facto independence for Abkhazia, but clashes and bombings have continued despite the presence of Russian peacekeepers.

Georgia has frequently accused Moscow of aiding the Abkhazians, but Russian officials have said they respect Georgia's territorial integrity.

Chechen fighters

AP said about 1,000 ethnic Georgian refugees from the region held an impromptu rally on Thursday near President Eduard Shevardnadze's office in the Georgian capital Tbilisi.

They demanded that the government back up ethnic Georgian guerrillas in Abkhazia and demand the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers.

Shevardnadze told the crowd that his government had done "everything possible for a peaceful settlement of the conflict and continues to take steps in this direction," AP reported.

However, he said, if the parliament decides to call for the peacekeepers to be withdrawn, "then the president will abide by that."

Russian media reports say Kremlin officials suspect Georgia of letting Chechen fighters once based in the Pankisi Gorge, a rugged mountain canyon connecting Georgia with Chechnya, to cross into Abkhazia.

Georgian reports added that the Chechens were joined there by some mountain Georgians, or Svans, mainly acting as guides.

Moscow has long accused Georgia, the only foreign country that borders Chechnya, of harbouring Chechen rebels. Georgia had denied the allegations but Shevardnadze suggested earlier this week that some rebels could be mixed in among Chechen refugees in the gorge.

Abkhazian leaders said on Wednesday that Abkhazian forces had surrounded 200 "terrorists," including Georgians, Chechens, and Arabs and Azerbaijani mercenaries, in the area around Sugar Head mountain in the Kodor Gorge.

Abkhazian Defence Minister Vladimir Mikanba told AP his forces clashed with the guerrillas on Wednesday near Sugar Head, killing six fighters and capturing two.



 
 
 
 


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