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].

RFE/RL