From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 7/23/2006 4:51 PM Jul 23 2006 2:16PM Former Georgian envoy in Abkhazia will no longer obey Tbilisi
TBILISI. July 23 (Interfax) - The Georgian president's former envoy in the Kodori Gorge Emzar Kvitsiani has blamed the Georgian government for disregarding problems facing residents of Kodori, the only district in Abkhazia controlled by Tbilisi, and warned that the earlier disbanded self-defense units would be re-established in the region.
Kvitsiani told the press on Sunday that he will no longer obey the Georgian authorities.
He also announced that Kodori residents had asked him to assume command of the Hunter local self-defense detachment, earlier disbanded, and that he had given his consent.
"You know that Georgian Defense Minister Irakly Okruashvili plans to storm the gorge on July 27. However any military force coming here will be met with an appropriate response," he said.
Should the government attempt to disarm his detachment by force, he and his supporters would offer resistance, he said.
The Georgian leadership and law enforcements service are yet to provide comments on these statements.
Meanwhile, Kvitsiani's opponents, among them residents of Kodori, held a rally in front of the building where the Abkhaz government in exile is headquartered in Tbilisi.
Demonstrators argued that Kvitsiani is not supported by Kodori residents and that the Svans, who also live in the district, are outraged by the former envoy's statement.
The Hunter detachment was formed by local residents when Eduard Shevardnadze was Georgia's president. It had more than 300 members. Shevardnadze's defense ministry encouraged self-defense detachments in districts bordering on Russia, but after Shevardnadze was deposed, the new Georgian leadership disbanded the detachment. sd la
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