Russian peacekeepers ordered out of Abkhazia as fighting escalates
KODORI GORGE, Georgia, Oct 12 (AFP) - Georgia ordered Russian peacekeepers out of the breakaway republic of Abkhazia Friday as hundreds of Georgian and Chechen militants launched an offensive aimed at taking the Abkhaz capital Sukhumi.
Georgia gave Russia three months to withdraw its peacekeeping forces from Abkhazia, a decision which Tbilisi is entitled to make unilaterally but which Moscow warned was likely to create chaos in Abkhazia and threaten the entire region.
Abkhazian leaders also protested the move, warning that a Russian withdrawal could force thousands of Georgians to flee the area and pledging to take up the Russian positions if the peacekeepers vacated them "so that our border with Georgia should not be open."
Georgian and Chechen fighters meanwhile advanced to within 15 kilometres (10 miles) of Sukhumi, the commander of a Georgian partisan group told AFP, withholding his full name.
"The Abkhaz are not reporting their losses, but they are serious, no fewer than 100 of them have been killed," he said, adding that Georgian and Chechen guerrillas engaged in fierce fighting with the Abkhaz troops since last week had so far lost three killed and 16 wounded.
The Abkhaz attempted to counter-attack in order to confine the guerrilla groups to the mountainous Gulripshsky region but their defense lines were overrun and rebels managed to advance halfway to Sukhumi, the guerrilla commander said.
No fewer than 500 guerrillas were taking part in the attack on Sukhumi, with reinforcements on the way, he added.
Abkhaz officials said their defense lines were still in place but admitted that the situation was serious.
"I think we all have a major war ahead of us," deputy defense spokesman Garry Kupalba said.
Abkhaz leaders did not rule out calling for Russian military aid in the event that Georgian troops entered the republic, "as that would mean war," Abkhaz envoy Igor Akhba said in Moscow.
Abkhazia claimed de-facto independence from Georgia in 1993 after a war in the early 1990s in which the separatists were supported by Moscow.
Russia sent peacekeepers to Abkhazia and to a security zone in Georgia along its unofficial border with the separatist region.
The Georgian parliament voted Thursday for the "immediate withdrawal" of Russian peacekeeping troops, and the government then issued a three-month deadline, warning that if they stayed they would be violating Georgian law.
A Kremlin spokesman quoted by Interfax warned earlier that if the peacekeepers left, Abkhazia would "turn into a zone of chaos and pose a threat for the entire region."
The UN Secretary General's envoy to the region, Dieter Boden, supported Russia's view, saying that in case of Russian pull-out, UN military observers would be left without security guarantees and would be unable to do their duty.
Analysts said that while Georgia's demands were understandable, with more than 1,700 Georgians killed as a result of shoot-outs and terrorist acts in the region since 1994, a Russian withdrawal would only make matters worse.
"Armed groups would be able to infiltrate Abkhazia unrestrained, and more Abkhaz men would take up arms and join the partisans," political scientist Irakly Gulordava said, adding that "the toll would increase dramatically."
Tbilisi has consistently accused Moscow of siding with the Abkhaz separatists, while Russia accuses Georgia of allowing Chechen rebels to use its territory as a base and supply route.
Fighting in the Kodori Gorge has raged unabated since last week, with Abkhaz attack helicopters bombing Chechen and Georgian positions late Thursday and Tbilisi sending reinforcements to the area.
However, the Georgian troops did not join in the fighting, stopping short of the war zone, senior Georgian official Koba Kobaladze said.
He said the Georgian military intended only to defend Georgian villages in the Kodori Gorge, a region that straddles the unofficial border between government-held territory and the separatist republic.
