SUKHUMI. Nov 1 (Interfax-AVN) - Tensions are at their highest in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone largely because the militarization of the region has reached an unprecedented level, and the region will explode if CIS peacekeepers are withdrawn, said Sergei Shamba, the foreign minister of breakaway Abkhaz.
"By arming Georgia, the international community has created an environment for an unprecedented militarization of the entire region. It is a chain reaction, and all in the North Caucasus are buying up weapons. What is currently happening in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict Zone is a result of an irresponsible policy that can regrettably lead to the resumption of armed conflicts," Shamba told the press in Sukhumi on Wednesday.
"The withdrawal of CIS peacekeepers from the Georgina-Abkhaz conflict zone will spark a new full-scale war in the South Caucasus, not local clashes - a war with unpredictable consequences for the region," he said.
"Georgia can very well decide that the CIS peacekeeping forces must be forced out of the conflict zone. But in actual fact, this issue, crucial for the entire Caucasus region, depends on the international community as a whole and on the big states involved in the political processes in the South Caucasus. In the current situation, when peace is so fragile in the region, the international community will not support such a step," Shamba said.
Concerning the legal mechanisms, a decision to withdraw peacekeepers can be made by the Council of the CIS heads of states, which is of course not interested in such dangerous and ill-conceived steps, he said.
Earlier on Wednesday the Georgian Foreign Ministry sent a note to the CIS Executive Committee demanding explanations about Russian peacekeepers' actions in the October 30 incident in the village of Ganmukhuri in the Zugdidi district and insisting that Commander of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces Sergei Chaban be recalled.