From: MSN Nicknamepsychoteddybear24 (Original Message) Sent: 8/4/2006 12:39 AM
U.S. OFFICIAL SAYS KODORI OPERATION COULD CONTRIBUTE TO STABILITY. Last week, Georgia launched an offensive in the Kodori Gorge, an area that straddles the breakaway Republic of Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia. Georgian leaders have hailed the operation as a success; former Kodori Governor Emzar Kvitsiani, whose defiance of the Georgian authorities served as the catalyst for the incursion, has rubbished such claims. RFE/RL's Georgian Service spoke to Matthew Bryza, a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. Bryza is also the U.S. co-chair of the OSCE's Minsk Group, set up to monitor peace negotiations over the disputed Nagorno- Karabakh region. Bryza told RFE/RL that Georgia's recent incursion could actually be a force for stability.
RFE/RL: Some people are saying that the police operation in the Kodori Gorge has tested the situation between Tbilisi and Sukhumi, irritated Moscow and many people, many leaders in the North Caucasus. Do you think this could hinder the continuation of peaceful negotiations between Georgia and Abkhazia?
Matthew Bryza: No, I don't think it needs to at all hinder the peaceful negotiations between Tbilisi and Sukhumi. I think that if the Georgian government continues the operation the way it's been begun, in accordance with international agreements, executed with great care to make sure that tension remains as low as possible through contact between Tbilisi and Sukhumi and if the Georgian government demonstrates its ability to take care of the needs of Georgian citizens in the Kodori Gorge, I think this could actually contribute to stability in the long run. And I think this operation, by eliminating an organized criminal gang that was really creating a terrible situation for the local inhabitants in the Kodori Gorge -- a place where they hadn't had any significant efforts to fight crime. I think it underscores how important it is to have an international policing unit or international policing force in Abkhazia -- maybe not so much in Kodori, but for certain in the Gali region where there are similar problems in terms of serious criminality, which then prevent the return of IDPs [internally displaced persons].
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