SUKHUMI, Abkhazia. May 26 (Interfax) - Abkhazia's acting president has accused Georgian intelligence of stirring tensions in Gali, an Abkhaz district bordering Georgia.
"Unfortunately, sabotage groups sent by Georgian intelligence services still make raids in the Gali district. Killings of civilians, abductions of people, armed clashes with our law enforcement services give rise to tensions in that district," Alexander Ankvab said during a meeting in the Abkhaz capital, Sukhumi, on Wednesday with Knut Vollebaek, high commissioner on national minorities of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
"Measures are being planned to increase personnel numbers in law enforcement structures in the Gali district, raise the salaries for [police], State Security Service and Border Guard officers," Ankvab said.
Russian border guards are setting up their posts in Gali under an Abkhaz-Russian agreement on joint control of the Abkhaz borders, he said.
"As regards the Gali district, to which international organizations are paying close attention, the situation there has changed considerably compared with what it was like five years ago," Ankvab said.
"It has become possible today to pay much more attention to the population and economy of the district. We are much more active in carrying out specialized educational, health and infrastructural projects there, and we are determined to build up our efforts," he said.
Ankvab said the Abkhaz authorities do not seek to prevent the teaching of the Georgian language at schools in the Gali district, where there is an ethnic Georgian community.
Vollebaek hailed the commitment of the Abkhaz authorities to enable local ethnic minorities to receive education in their mother tongue and expressed willingness to help Abkhazia put those commitments into practice.