Tbilisi/Agency Caucasus – While the tension between Russia and Georgia is further swollen by propoganda and manipulation in a way that affects Abkhazia the most at any rate, the Georgian news media has made a claim that the Chechen troops of the Russian Peace Forces deployed in Abkhazia have left the region as a whole body.
The Russian Peace Forces Commander gave orders for the Chechen troops deployed in Abkhazia as part of the Vostok and Zapad squad that the Russian Defense Ministry established in Chechnya to attack the Georgian police patrols, according to Rustavi-2, Georgian television station. The Chechen troops refused to obey the Commander’s orders and requested that they be permitted to leave Abkhazia without anybody following them behind, or they would have to use force. A group of 90 Chechens afterwards left their posts in the Gali villages of Saberior and Mujav and disappeared in the forest.
The Russian Peace Forces Commander did not issue a statement in response to Rustavi-2’s claims. However, a similar move came from Rustavi-2 in January to which Russia issued a statement of rebuttal.
Paata Shamugiya, an official of the "Abkhaz government in exile" that Georgia set up in Kodor, told reporters in Tbilisi on July 12 that the Chechen peace-keeping troops were assigned to attack the Georgian patrols.
KU/ÖZ/FT
