Abkhazia refuses to attend four-party meeting on Georgia border
28/07/2006 14:21 SUKHUMI, July 28 (RIA Novosti) - Abkhazia refused to attend a four-party meeting with Georgia, UN representatives and peacekeepers Friday following the arrival of a representative of a pro-Tbilisi government.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said Thursday a new "legitimate government" of the breakaway region would be based in the Kodori Gorge, the only Tbilisi-controlled area in the separatist republic's north, where local militia forces organized a rebellion against the Georgian rule this week.
"Abkhazia has no intention of holding four-party talks with the Georgian delegation that comprises a representative of the so-called Abkhazian autonomy in exile," Abkhazian presidential envoy Ruslan Kishmariya told RIA Novosti.
He said Abkhazia's delegation had left the venue of the extraordinary four-party meeting scheduled for Friday.
Saakashvili said Thursday that Abkhazia's new government would fully control the Kodori Gorge, develop and revive the territory. "The Kodori Gorge will become a temporary legitimate administrative center of Abkhazia," the president said.
Abkhazian leader Sergei Bagapsh said Thursday he considered the Georgian authorities' decision to install a new Abkhazian government in Kodori a "provocation."
"Georgia will be entirely responsible for the consequences," he said, adding that Abkhazia retained the right to use force if Georgia tried to deploy "the Abkhazian government in exile" in the gorge.
The bloody conflict between Georgia and Abkhazia erupted in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was suspended by a ceasefire agreement that introduced peacekeeping troops of the former Soviet republics, including Russia, in the separatist area.
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