Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- [NATO's war in the Caucasus escalates.] Saturday August 25, 7:39 PM Georgia denies Chechen fighters near Abkhazia, but situation "unclear" TBILISI, Aug 25 (AFP) - Georgian authorities on Saturday dismissed reports that hundreds of Chechen and Georgian fighters were gathering in the Samegrelo region of western Georgia and preparing an incursion into the rebel republic of Abkhazia. Interior Minister Kakha Tarmagadze said reports that 500 Chechen and Georgian fighters were massing near the Kodor gorge near Tsalendzhikhsky, 60 kilometres (40 miles) from the border between government-held Georgia and the rebel republic, were "false." However other officials described the situation as "unclear," and local residents in the Georgia's northwestern region told AFP that there was evidence that Georgian and Chechen "partisans" were grouping in the forests there. A farmworker said the fighters appeared divided in their objectives, the Georgians wishing to attack a town in the region of Galsk, inside Abkhaz territory and the Chechens wanting to attack Russian military installations. The Georgian presidency on Friday ordered Georgian security forces to "check the reports" regarding the presence of Chechen fighters in the region and to "take all necessary measures to avoid an armed conflict." The commander of Georgia's interior ministry troops, Giorgy Shervachidze, the head of Georgia's border guards, and two representatives of the presidency met at Zugdidi, in western Georgia, on Friday to discuss the situation. President Eduard Shevardnadze, who late Thursday met interior ministry and security officials at his residence at Likani, 180 kilometres (120 miles) southwest of Tbilisi to discuss the situation, broke off his holiday to return to the capital, officials said Saturday. Russian peacekeeping forces stationed in Abkhazia since 1994 were placed on alert twice Friday, according to the Russia military news agency AVN. Chechen fighters who attempt to attack Russian military installations in Abkhazia will be wiped out, the Russian army general staff said. Reservists in the breakaway republic have been called up, AVN noted. Russian military sources said Friday that Chechen fighters led by warlord Ruslan Gerlayev were planning to transit via Abkhazia into the Russian Caucasian republics of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachayevo-Cherkessia. A Georgian presidential envoy Malkhaz Kakabadze met Friday with the head of the 100-strong detachment of UN observers supervising a ceasefire in the region, Anis Badjuva, at Sukhumi, the Abkhazian capital. Georgia is home to several thousand Chechen rebels and refugees who have fled the fighting in the neighbouring southern Russian republic. Abkhazia has claimed de facto independence from Tbilisi since 1993 after fighting a war in the early 1990s in which the separatists were supported by Moscow. Around 3,000 Russian troops are stationed in Abkhazia as part of a peacekeeping force sent by the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose grouping of former Soviet republics. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: archive@jab.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
