TBILISI. April 27 (Interfax-AVN) - The Georgian authorities will not agree to deployment of Russian peacekeepers in the upper part of the Kodori gorge that is controlled by Georgia, Foreign Minister Irakly Menagarishvili said on Saturday.
Menagarishvili was asked by reporters to comment on Abkhazia's proposal concerning deployment of Russian peacekeepers in the gorge so that they would be a force dividing the belligerent parties. The proposal was made on Thursday during negotiations between Georgia and Abkhazia in Sukhumi.
Menagarishvili said that the proposal was dictated by those who were interested in the Russian military presence in the Kodori gorge from the political or other points of view. The measure is supposed to justify Russia's "uncoordinated actions" which manifested themselves in the airdrop of a landing party in the upper part of the gorge on April 12.
Responding to a question from Interfax-Military News Agency Menagarishvili stressed that complete demilitarization of the gorge proposed by the Abkhaz party practically means extradition of all Georgian men from the area, which is impossible.
According to Georgia, 900 armed locals are maintaining security in the gorge. They are reservists of the Georgian National Guard, Tbilisi claims.
The parties failed to reach a mutually profitable decision on the Kodori gorge on Thursday, but the talks on settlement in the conflict zone will continue, Menagarishvili added.