Abkhazia's Authorities Do Not Intend to Consider Georgian ''Strategy in Regard to the Occupied Territories''
SUKHUM -- A meeting held today chaired by the President Sergey Bagapsh was dedicated to the situation in the border Gal district.
It was attended by the Speaker of the Parliament Nugzar Ashuba, the Prime Minister Alexander Ankvab, the Secretary of the Security Council Alexander Voinsky, the chief of the Migration Service of the Republic of Abkhazia Vladimir Arshba, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Sergey Shamba, the Minister of Internal Affairs Otar Khetsia, the deputy Chairman of the State Security Service Nugzar Samsonia, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Security Garik Samanba, the head of the Gal district administration Beslan Arshba, heads of district’s security agencies.
At the meeting it was a question of the facts of offences that have become more frequent and of the necessity to coordinate all security agencies’ activities, to fortify the Abkhazia’s border on the river Ingur.
According to the President, the activities of the security agencies in the Gal district are badly coordinated. S. Bagapsh strictly forbade police officers to go to crime scenes without respective convoy and equipment available in the Gal district. “We have purchased special vehicles and equipment not to put our boys at risk henceforth since a lot of them have been killed in acts of terrorism”, Bagapsh said.
He pointed to the fact that provocations against security agencies are always created in the Gal district and it should be born in mind.
As to the state border, according to the President, it should be equipped appropriately.
At the meeting it was a question of the strategy approved by the Georgian government in regard to Abkhazia and South Ossetia providing for “Inclusion via Cooperation”, “peaceful ways to settle conflicts”, “attraction of investors’ money”. Sergey Bagapsh regards these Georgia’s actions as “gentle bribe to the Gal district population”.
Therefore the President considers it necessary to fortify the border and to toughen access control. “We are ready to speak with international structures if they assist Gal residents through Abkhazia. If it’s done through Georgia we will suppress it in every way possible”, Bagapsh said.
“We always meet the population of the district halfway, but they kill our people as they did”, Bagapsh said.
According to the Minister for Foreign Affairs Sergey Shamba, Georgia’s representatives tried to hand this "strategy" of the Georgian government over to the Abkhaz delegation during the ninth round of the Geneva discussions. “Abkhazia’s representatives declared that they didn’t even intend to read it, and warned that if this so-called “strategy on the occupied territories” was offered during the discussions, they would get up and leave the meeting, and the document would be left lying on the table”, Shamba said. “We are not an occupied territory and don’t even intend to speak about it. Secondly, we regard this document as a plan to get Abkhazia back to Georgia. For us it’s an instruction of what cannot be done”.
President Sergey Bagapsh also declared that the Abkhazia’s authorities were going to consider no programs of the Georgian government. The head of the state believes that any Georgian program is an instruction “how to get Abkhazia back”.
“We won’t even speak about it. In response to this program we will toughen the border on the river Ingur and won’t allow to create “the fifth column” in the Gal district. I can imagine how many people have been already recruited, and are running in the district”, the President stressed.
Sergey Bagapsh warned siloviki to be more attentive with respect to the people arousing suspicion in cooperation with Georgia’s special services.