TBILISI, December 14 (AVN) - UN military observers Zbignev Lekhach (Poland) and Yevstafios Kogilidis (Greece) that were taken hostage by unknown gunmen in Kodor gorge Sunday are to be delivered to Tbilisi later in the day, Kakha Imnadze, Georgian president's spokesman, told reporters.
He also said that the country's leadership was satisfied with the successful release of the UN hostages but stressed that Georgian authorities did not exclude that such incidents might happen in the breakaway republic of Abkhazia in the future. According to Imnadze, the hostages were taken by the forces that by all means wish to destabilise the situation in Georgia and in the Caucasus as a whole. He refused to name the forces but hinted that "they were outside Georgia but with support inside the country".
Speaking on the same topic, a high-ranking official close to Abkhazian President Vladislav Ardzinba said official Tbilisi was responsible for criminalising the situation in the area of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict and in the Kodor gorge. According to the official, "Georgian authorities have been demonstrating inability to soundly consider political reality and find a mutually acceptable solution of the Georgian-Abkhazian problem for the benefit of both nations and the state as a whole. Under the conditions of political instability and disturbed lifestyle in the region, criminal incidents are inevitable."