29.09.2007 - Source: Civil Georgia

The newly constructed road linking upper Kodori Gorge with Georgia, will enable almost unrestricted overland access to the Tbilisi-controlled areas in breakaway Abkhazia ("‘Peace Road’ to Kodori Opened") [ID 21253]

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20.09.2007 - Source: Civil Georgia

Georgian police opens fire on platoon of Abkhaz special forces, killing two and capturing six troopers, Interior Minister says ("Interior Minister: Police Repel Abkhaz 'Saboteurs' in Kodori") [ID 21176]

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26.07.2007 - Source: Civil Georgia

Attack on upper Kodori Gorge on 11 March 2007: Georgia’s UN ambassador wants to reopen the investigation of the incident to cover all unanswered questions, especially the role of the Russian army ("Tbilisi Demands Reopening of Probe into Kodori Attack") [ID 20718]

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15.07.2007 - Source: Civil Georgia

Georgian soldier accidentally shot dead in Tbilisi-controlled upper Kodori Gorge in breakaway region ("'Accidental Shot' Kills Soldier in Kodori") [ID 20664]

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18.01.2007 - Source: International Crisis Group

Georgia’so-called anti-criminal operation on 25 July 2006 in the Kodori valley was a serious violation of existing agreements according to Abkhazian leadership; as a consequence negotiations are frozen ("Abkhazia: Ways Forward; Europe Report N°179 – 18 January 2007") [ID 18834]

"The operation Georgia launched on 25 July 2006 in the Kodori valley has alternatively been called an “anti-criminal operation” and a “large-scale special operation … under the direction of the ministers of internal affairs and defence”. According to Tbilisi, it aimed to disarm and arrest Emzar Kvitsiani, former presidential special representative and commander of the local militia, Monadire, and his supporters, who threatened constitutional order and state security. According to Sukhumi, it was a serious violation of existing agreements and a threat to its security, justifying its withdrawal from all official negotiations.  

The actual intentions are less important then the consequences: an undermining of the security environment and a freeze on negotiations. In his September 2006 report, the UN Secretary-General confirmed thirteen Georgian violations of the 1994 Moscow Agreement due to the “introduction of troops, military vehicles and aircraft into the security zone”. When pressed, Defence Minister Okruashvili said army units “only provided logistical assistance” to the police but other officials were more candid. Givi Targamadze, chairman of the parliamentary committee for defence and security, stated: “This is a strategic territory, from where a helicopter flight to Sokhumi takes only five minutes”. Abkhaz security was tightened for fear the Georgians would launch a two-pronged attack on Sukhumi across the Inguri River into Gali and down from the Kodori valley."

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14.10.2006 - Source: Civil Georgia

UN adopts resolution on Abkhazia with focus on Kodori ("UN Adopts Resolution on Abkhazia with Focus on Kodori") [ID 17926]

"      The UN Security Council adopted a resolution on Abkhazia on October 13 calling on Georgia to refrain from “provocative actions, especially in upper Kodori” Gorge, and noting the Russian peacekeeping troops’ important “stabilizing role” in the Abkhaz conflict zone.

The resolution has also extended the mandate of the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) for six months to April 15, 2007.

President Saakashvili said on October 13 that although there are “several disputable aspects” in the text of the resolution, he still welcomes the fact that two basic demands of the Russian side were not reflected in the document. [...]

Georgia’s Ambassador to the UN Irakli Alasania hailed the extension of the UNOMIG mandate, but noted at a news conference in New York on October 13 that the resolution does not reflect the failure of Russian peacekeeping forces stationed in Abkhazia under the aegis of the CIS to fulfill their duties.

He also said that the resolution puts too much focus on Tbilisi’s moves towards upper Kodori Gorge, which he said is surprising.

Georgia sent troops to upper Kodori in late July, cracked down on militias there and fully restored the central authorities control over this area of breakaway region. The move was condemned by Sokhumi and Moscow as a provocation. [...]

The resolution expresses concern over “the actions of the Georgian side in the Kodori Valley in July” and “urges the Georgian side to address seriously legitimate Abkhaz security concerns, to avoid steps which could be seen as threatening and to refrain from militant rhetoric.” [...]

In his address to the UN General Assembly Session on September 22, President Saakashvili made it clear that Tbilisi will sign an agreement on the non-resumption of hostilities only after the Russian peacekeeping forces in the conflict zone are replaced by a multinational police force."

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13.10.2006 - Source: Civil Georgia

UN Observer Mission in Georgia briefs on Kodori monitoring ("UNOMIG Briefs on Kodori Monitoring") [ID 17924]

"A joint patrol of the UN observers and Russian peacekeepers found the presence of 550 personnel from the Georgian Interior Ministry in the Tbilisi-controlled upper Kodori Gorge as a result of monitoring carried out on October 12. The presence of police forces in upper Kodori Gorge is technically not a violation of the 1994 Moscow cease-fire agreement, which bans the deployment of army troops in the area. [...] UNOMIG added that the joint monitoring “covered a substantial area," but not all, of Upper Kodori. [...] “If the monitoring continues, the peace talks that are currently suspended will be resumed between the Georgian and Abkhaz sides,” Sergey Chaban, Commander of the Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia, said on October 13 at a regular weekly quadripartite meeting in Chuburkhinji village of Gali district in breakaway Abkhazia.  Initially Georgia was against the involvement of Russian peacekeepers in the monitoring process, but Tbilisi later gave up its hard-line stance"

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15.09.2006 - Source: International Crisis Group

In 2004-2005 defence ministry tried to abolish 3 paramilitary groups based in Kodori Gorge; Monadire unit was disbanded in 2005; when its leader Kvitsiani announced he would not disarm, Tbilisi launched police operation against him; in 2006 15.8 per cent of Georgia`s budget goes to military which indicates possible military response to conflict ("Abkhazia Today; Europe Report N°176") [ID 17236]

"Until 2004, two paramilitary groups – the White Legion and the Forest Brothers – were active in the Zugdidi-Gali zone. Besides conducting a low-intensity guerrilla war, they were involved in criminal activities, including smuggling. In February 2004 the ministry of interior detained 35 partisans and confiscated many weapons ostensibly belonging to the groups in Zugdidi. President Saakashvili openly criticized the guerrillas. [...]

Similarly in 2004-2005 the defence ministry took steps to abolish three paramilitary groups (Monadire, Svaneti, and Khevsureti) operating under its control in the Kodori Gorge. The largest, the Monadire (Hunter) battalion, had 860 men. Since 2002 it gave Georgia defence capabilities in the conflict zone without deploying formal military or police forces. When Minister of Defence Okruashvili officially disbanded the unit in spring 2005, Kodori locals and the Abkhaz government-in-exile were furious. The discontent grew gradually into disobedience and became an open crisis on 22 July 2006 when Emzar Kvitsiani, Monadire leader and the former representative of the Georgian president in Kodori, defiantly announced that he would not disarm. Three days later Tbilisi launched what it called a “police operation” to disarm the paramilitaries forcefully, though Kvitsiani escaped capture. Sukhumi watched these developments, which brought well-armed troops to within 30 km of the city, with concern. The Georgian ministry of defence has been systematically increasing its capacities and its belligerent rhetoric. Even as Georgia insists it wants to resolve its conflicts peacefully, it increased its military budget more than any other country worldwide in 2005. In 2006 over $341 million, 15.8 per cent of the state budget is going to the military. Large showy military parades, the opening of a NATO-standard base in Senaki (western Georgia), the start of construction of another one close to Gori (eastern Georgia), and several multi-million dollar military training exercises, suggest Georgia may be preparing to respond militarily should peace talks fail. Defence Minister Okruashvili has made strong statements: “we must reunite the country, and I don’t care that sceptics in Europe are concerned”. The renewal of U.S. support to the army through the Sustainment and Stability Operations Program  (SSOP) for another year and $30 million strengthens capabilities, and fuels Russian and Abkhaz fears. So do prospects of Georgia obtaining “intensified dialogue” with NATO later this year and membership several years later."

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25.08.2006 - Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Background information on Georgia's move to reassert control over Kodori valley and on relationship between Georgia and Abkhazia ("Georgian-Abkhaz Tensions Rise Over Kodori Gorge") [ID 15808]

"The end of the 1992-93 conflict left Abkhazia a self-declared but unrecognised country. The Georgian government, which insists it is still the legitimate authority, set up its own administration for Abkhazia, although in reality this exerts no real control over the breakaway territory. Until now, this government-in-exile has been based in Tbilisi. But that status quo was shaken on July 27, when Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili announced that the pro-Tbilisi administration was to be shifted to the upper Kodori gorge, the only part of Abkhazia not held by the separatists. The gorge’s 4,000 people are mostly Svans, an ethnic sub-group of Georgians, rather than Abkhaz. The opportunity to make the move appeared in July, when the Georgian military went into the Kodori gorge to put down an insurrection by a local warlord, Emzar Kvitsiani. Kvitsiani, formerly Tbilisi’s official representative in this part of Georgia, had formed what amounted to a parallel system of local government, supported by an armed militia of around 350 men. Tbilisi allowed the militia to continue as a line of defence against the Abkhaz forces on the other side or the border, but after Saakashvili’s administration took over in the “Rose Revolution” of November, it ordered the group to disband. Kvitsiani baulked at this and began making hostile statements about some of Saakashvili’s ministers, a standoff resolved by the arrival of Georgian security forces in July. Since the lightning military action, which Tbilisi prefers to call a “police operation” and insists does not violate de-militarisation agreements with Abkhazia, both Tbilisi and Sukhumi have accused each other of concentrating military forces in and around the gorge and have made belligerent threats. Tensions have increased further with Saakishvili’s designation of Kodori as the seat of the government-in-exile.[…] Saakashvili immediately ordered large-scale, intensive rebuilding projects in this remote and long-neglected highland region, including renovation of schools and hospitals, extending Kodori’s lone airstrip, and building roads and helipads. He suggested the government-in-exile should make the shift quickly, before deep snows begin to isolate the area in the autumn. [...] The authorities in Sukhumi described the Georgian decision to relocate the government-in-exile as a “provocation”. Although they have never controlled the upper part of the gorge, they assert that it rightfully falls within their territory.[...] To many Abkhaz, war now seems inevitable. To repel a possible Georgian offensive, the Abkhaz military is now practicing war-games, drafting in reservists who are mostly veterans of the 1992-93 conflict. The escalation of tensions in Kodori came as the situation deteriorated in the Gali district, an area controlled by the Sukhumi administration but populated by Georgians. [...] Abkhazia insists Tbilisi is already in breach of the 1994 ceasefire agreement by sending defence ministry forces into Kodori, troops which it says are still there. The Georgians counter that the only military unit consists of army engineers doing some infrastructure work, and other forces are police needed to ensure security. The United Nations observer mission based in and around Abkhazia, UNOMIG, has asked to resume monitoring operations in Kodori, which it suspended about three years ago due to lawlessness which it said threatened the safety of personnel. [...]"

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15.08.2006 - Source: ReliefWeb

Joint patrolling group of CIS soldiers and UN military observers launched monitoring of lower Kodori Gorge, which is controlled by Abkhaz separatist authorities ("Peacekeepers, UN observers launch monitoring in lower Kodori") [ID 15724]

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04.08.2006 - Source: Civil Georgia

Kodori Gorge: At least 10 people killed during clashes between Georgian government troops and rebel militia fighters in the past 2 days ("Abkhaz Sources Report of Casualties in Kodori Shootings") [ID 16933]

"According to the Defense Ministry of breakaway Abkhazia, at least 10 people died during clashes between Georgian government troops and rebel militia fighters in upper Kodori Gorge in the past two days, Interfax news agency reported. [...] The Abkhaz news agency Apsnipress reported on August 4, quoting chief of staff of the Abkhaz armed force Anatoly Zaitsev, that the situation in lower Kodori gorge is stable. The lower part of the gorge is under the secessionist authorities’ control."

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27.07.2006 - Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Military operation to disarm militia of Emzar Kvitsiani in Kodori gorge suspended ("Georgia Interrupts Raid In Kodori Gorge") [ID 15631]

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26.07.2006 - Source: ReliefWeb

Abkhazia: Georgian forces capture most of Kodori gorge, which is partly controlled by Abkhaz separatists ("Georgian forces battle rebels in strategic gorge") [ID 15716]

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26.07.2006 - Source: ReliefWeb

Kodori gorge: Government forces attacked militias after local rebel warlord refused to surrender ("Government forces clash with besieged militias (UN Association of Georgia)") [ID 15717]

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26.07.2006 - Source: ReliefWeb

Abkhaz troops are reportedly concentrated near the Kodori Gorge; serious conflict could reportedly break out if Georgian troops come close to the Abkhaz border ("Abkhaz leader comments on Kodori operation (UN Association of Georgia)") [ID 15718]

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26.07.2006 - Source: Civil Georgia

Reportedly 4 persons injured in police operation in Kodori Gorge; Russian news agencies reported that there are 500-800 troops in region; Georgian report says 60 members of Emzar Kvitsiani's armed group disarmed ("Conflicting Reports Prevail over Ongoing Kodori Operation") [ID 16928]

"At least four persons have been reportedly injured as a result of ongoing, as officials put it, “police operation” in upper Kodori Gorge, where government forces are confronting the rebel paramilitary group Monadire, which is  led by former local official Emzar Kvitsiani.[...] Samegrelo region, south of Svaneti [...] is high mountainous region of Georgia that served as the launcing point for Georgian troops entering into the troubled gorge in breakaway Abkhazia on July 25.Information coming from Kodori remains extremely scarce and conflicting. Officials have declined to comment, saying only that the special operation is still ongoing. Phone communication with the gorge was cut and reporters are barred from entering the area for security reasons. Meanwhile, Russian news agencies, citing Russian peacekeeping command in the Abkhaz conflict zone, reported that Georgia sent about 300 additional troops to Kodori Gorge. Estimates of the number of troops that were initially sent into the region range from 500 to 800. An official report said late on July 25 that government forces disarmed a 60-member unit of the militia group. The report also notes that rebels blew up one of the bridges in the gorge. [...] Officials rule out the possibility that the ongoing police operation in Kodori will grow into a large-scale military confrontation. Abkhaz sources reported late on July 25 that although “some shots” fired in upper Kodori were heard, no large-scale clashes took place in the troubled area."

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25.07.2006 - Source: ReliefWeb

Abkhazia: Military convoy of Georgian troops moves towards Kodori gorge; government officials decline to comment, Abkhaz sources say that 30 Kamaz-type trucks, 18 Niva off-road cars and two armored vehicles were dispatched towards Kodori gorge, where rebel warlord Emzar Kvitsiani and his militia are based ("Tensions high as troops move towards Kodori") [ID 15712]

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