TBILISI. Oct 4 (Interfax-AVN) - The Georgian authorities are ready to allow interested parties to visit the upper part of the Kodori gorge and make sure that there are no Chechen guerillas in the area.
"We are ready to allow the command of the CIS Collective Peacekeeping Forces in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone, high- ranking Abkhazian officials and accredited diplomats to visit the upper part of the Kodori gorge and make sure that there are no Chechen guerillas," chairman of the Georgian Intelligence Department Avtandil Ioseliani told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday.
"Moscow speaks about the presence of 100 rebels in the upper part of the Kodori gorge. If our Russian colleagues indeed have such information, let them indicate the rebels' location, and Georgian law-enforcers together with Russian peacekeepers will check the area," the official said.
According to Ioseliani, Georgia is worried about the concentration of Abkhaz forces near several villages in the Kodori gorge. "Concentration of Abkhaz forces has been registered in the vicinity of the Laga and Tsebelda villages and close to Tkvarcheli," he stressed.
Georgia understands that "not only Georgians but many Abkhaz men and women do not want the tensions to grow in Kodori and support peaceful settlement in the area," Ioseliani concluded.