The FINANCIAL — According to Civil Georgia, the Georgian authorities have launched “large-scale terrorist activities” in Abkhazia, Sergey Bagapsh, the Abkhaz leader, said at the breakaway region’s national security council session on October 26.
At least one Abkhaz militiaman was injured as a result of attack on the post in the village of Pichori in the Gali district late on October 25. The Abkhaz side has claimed that the Abkhaz border guard was injured after the attack, which was carried out with grenade-launchers from the Georgian village of Ganmukhuri at the administrative border.
Meanwhile, the Georgian television stations have claimed that the shooting, which occurred in the Gali district was a result of a clash between “the Russian soldiers and the Abkhaz armed groups.” These reports suggested that the clash occurred after the Russian troops demanded from the Abkhaz militias to stop patrolling in the village. The Georgian televisions reported that two Abkhaz militiamen were injured in the clash.
The incident in Gali came a day after Georgian local governor was killed in a mine blast in the village of Muzhava at the Abkhaz administrative border. On October 22 chief of the Abkhaz defense ministry’s intelligence unit Eduard Emin-Zade and two local residents of Gali district were killed in the town of Gali. Two days later, a local Abkhaz official, Roman Ashuba, was shot dead in the village of Dikhazurga in the Gali district.
“Official Tbilisi has launched a large-scale terrorist activities on the Abkhaz territory and developments of recent days in the Gali district confirm this,” the Abkhaz official news agency, Apsnipress, reported quoting Sergey Bagapsh. “Murder of four Abkhaz citizens – civilians and law enforcement officers among them – was carried out by the Georgian terrorists who had infiltrated into Abkhazia from Georgia.”
He instructed the law enforcement agencies “to give an adequate response to all the provocations of the Georgian side with the use of all the means at the disposal.”
“The recent developments are nothing but Georgia’s attempt to grab the Gali district,” Bagapsh added.
Apsnipress also reported that a special headquarters would be set up with an aim “to uncover and to destroy the Georgian terrorists, who have infiltrated on the Abkhaz territory.” Chief of staff of the breakaway region’s armed forces, Anatoly Zaitsev, and deputy head of security service, Nugzar Samsonia, were tasked to coordinate the headquarters’ activities.
During his address to the national security council, Sergey Bagapsh, also accused the UN Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM) of “bias.”
“They do not give a fair assessment to the actions of the Georgian authorities, which have turned terrorism into level of state policy,” Bagapsh said.
The accusation is the latest in the series of allegations leveled by the Russian officials and authorities in Abkhazia and South Ossetia recently against the EU monitors, who are deployed in the areas adjacent to the breakaway regions.
Head of the EU monitoring mission, Hansjorg Haber said on October 24 that EU monitors should have an access inside South Ossetia and Abkhazia in order to verify their allegations that the Georgian side was opening fire into their direction.
"We ask, we knock at the door and we think that the Abkhaz and South Ossetian de facto authorities may have their own interest in admitting us if they want alleged shootings from the Georgian side to be investigated and reported on," the German diplomat said.
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