Tbilisi/Agency Caucasus – Tensions have been continuing to remain high along the border between Georgia and its breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, since the last time Georgia launched an offensive in the Caucasus: While Georgia accused Abkhazia on Monday of firing at villages, Sukhum held Georgia responsible for the firing.
There was firing on Sunday morning at the Georgian villages of Shamgona and Hurcha in Zugdidi from Russian emplacements in the Nabakevi village of Gal province, according to a statement released from the alternative Abkhazian administration that Georgia established. The initial twenty-minute firing was continued with mortar fire. No casualties were reported. Both United Nations and European Union observers were sent to the area.
Laurens Kogoniya, Chief Police Officer of Abkhazia in Gal, said that both at night and in the morning sounds of mortar as well as automatic machine gun fires had been ‘really’ heard around the Hurcha village. However, he denied that there could be a linkage between them and Abkhazia. He went even further and accused Georgia of firing at Georgian villages to draw the attention of European Union observer mission so that both Russia and Abkhazia would be left in a difficult situation.
Tbilisi claimed on Sunday that one of the bridges that link Zugdidi to Gal was destroyed.
It previously claimed that the Ruhi village in Zugdidi province came under fire from the Chuburhinji village in Gal province.
Meanwhile, South Ossetia accused Georgia on Monday of breaching a ceasefire deal by shooting at its villages from an area that is monitored by ‘unarmed’ European Union observers, Reuters reported.
France’s President Nicholas Sarkozy brokered the deal to bring to an end the brief war in August between Georgia and Russia.
A South Ossetian official said that South Ossetian forces would not hesitate to answer back and destroy the Georgian firing positions. South Ossetia’s Interior Ministry Mikhail Mindzayev had ordered the security forces to remain ready to answer all Georgian provocations, Irina Gagloyeva, head of the Press and Information Committee, told Reuters.
She also voiced concern at European Union observers remaining silent while Georgian forces fired at South Ossetian villages. "We now have the impression the international community does not want to see stability here," she said.
KU/ÖZ/FT/HAS
