SUKHUMI. Jan 21 (Interfax-AVN) - If Georgia refuses to prolong the mandate of the CIS Collective Peacekeeping Forces in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone, the Abkhaz Defense Ministry will launch a plan of replacing the peacekeepers with its own units, Abkhaz Deputy Defense Minister Garri Kupalba said on Tuesday.
"All services and branches of the Abkhaz Armed Forces are assigned sections of the Gali district in case Russian peacekeepers have to leave the conflict zone," Kupalba told Interfax-Military News Agency.
"Corresponding command post exercises have been held, it is not ruled out that they might happen again in the future," he noted.
From the end of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict in September 1993 to the deployment of Russian peacekeepers in summer 1994, Abkhaz armed formations "held positions on the Inguri River, and that is why they are familiar with specifics," the deputy minister said.
Kupalba would not say whether Abkhazia plans to apply for assistance to voluntarily formations of the North Caucasus if Russian peacekeepers are withdrawn from the territory.
"Time will tell, but obviously the war party is strong in Tbilisi and it calls for bringing back Abkhazia by force," the deputy defense minister stressed.
This is confirmed by "the bridgehead that is being established by the Georgian party in the Kodori gorge where over 900 border guards and National Guard reservists are situated," he noted.
Kupalba said "I agree with the Georgian president, who told national radio on Monday that the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers will lead to a new Georgian-Abkhaz bloodshed."
"It is the war party in Georgia that is initiating it," he stressed.
The mandate of the collective peacekeeping forces in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone expired on December 31, 2002. Georgia refuses to extend the mandate insisting on the closure of train service between Sochi and Sukhumi which was resumed on December 25, 2002 without coordination with Georgia.