TBILISI. June 23 (Interfax-AVN) - Tbilisi suggests including Georgian servicemen in the joint patrols monitoring the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia.
"If patrols monitoring the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia include officials of the Georgian Defense Ministry in addition to UN military observers and Russian peacekeepers, it will be a real security guarantee while accomplishing the mission," Avtandil Ioseliani, Georgian State Intelligence Department chairman told Interfax-Military News Agency on Monday.
Ioseliani has made the proposal taking into account that leaders of the UN mission began to develop the measures allowing them to ensure greater security for their officials in Kodori after the kidnapping of four officials of the mission by unidentified persons in Kodori on June 5.
"No problems or incidents will happen any longer if Russian and Georgian peacekeepers are members of the patrols," Ioseliani said.
He added that Tbilisi is interested in resuming the Kodori Gorge monitoring as soon as possible. It is the single Abkhaz area left under the Georgian control after the Georgian-Abkhaz military conflict of 1992-1993.