TBILISI. May 17 (Interfax-AVN) - A group of 11 UN military observers and CIS peacekeepers began patrolling the lower and upper parts of the Kodori Gorge on Friday.
Joint patrolling will last for several days, the office of the Georgian envoy to the Kodori Gorge told Interfax-Military News Agency. The UN observers and the CIS peacekeepers will report on their results at a Georgian-Abkhaz meeting in the village of Chuburkhindzhi in Georgia's Gali district on May 23.
The Georgian parliament demanded on Friday that Avtandil Ioseliani, chief of the country's intelligence service, provided explained of his earlier report on preparations for an attack on the upper part of the Kodori Gorge in the Abkhaz army.
The report was refuted by Georgian Defense Minister David Tevzadze on Friday. He explained the amassment of Abkhaz forces in the lower part of the gorge by conduction of a planned reservists' training that was completed later that day. The defense minister said that there were no grounds to talk about preparations for the attack on the gorge section controlled by Georgia.
Lawmakers said on Friday they were surprised with conflicting statements on the situation in the gorge made by Ioseliani and Tevzadze. They demanded that chiefs of all Georgian law-enforcement agencies and National Security Council secretary Tedo Dzhaparidze were invited to the parliament for presenting explanations.
Georgian Parliament Chairwoman Nino Burdzhanadze promised lawmakers to solve the problem. She said she had already appealed to Georgian residents of the gorge asking them to stay calm.