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Abkhaz troops to drive out all Georgian, Chechen
guerrillas: breakaway PM
MOSCOW, Oct 18 (AFP) - The leader of Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia warned Thursday that his troops were ready to cross the unofficial border with Georgia in order to wipe out pro-Georgian guerrillas threatening the enclave.
"We have information that bandits, mostly Chechens and Arabs, are camped in the Pankissi gorge on Georgian territory and will try to continue their aggression against Abkhazia," Anri Dzhergeniya told Russian NTV television.
"We will take preventive measures. Our troops will attack all guerrillas who try to cross into Abkhazia before they actually cross the border," said Dzhergeniya, prime minister of the region's breakaway government.
Dzhergeniya claimed that Abkhaz forces had already "largely destroyed" Chechen and Georgian fighters who streamed into Abkhazia early this month to launch a major offensive on the separatist "capital" Sukhumi.
The separatist leader also charged Georgia with trying to reclaim the rebel province by force, defiantly reminding Tbilisi that the last attempt to do so in 1992 failed.
Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze earlier this week said he was ready to grant the self-styled republic more rights as a constituent part of Georgia, a former Soviet republic which became independent in 1991.
But he added that Tbilisi would ultimately use force to retake the territory which is wedged between Russia and the Black Sea.
Abkhazia claimed de-facto independence from Georgia in 1993 after a war in which the separatists were supported by Moscow. Some 250,000 Georgians fled the region at the time.
Speaking from Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi, Dzhergeniya also praised Russian peacekeepers, stationed in Abkhazia since a 1994 truce between the Georgian government and separatist forces put an end to a secessionist war.
Georgia charged the peacekeepers with supporting Abkhaz separatists and demanded last week that Russia withdraw the 1,600-strong force.
Abkhazia is drafting a plan for closer ties to Russia and which is supported by "an overwhelming majority of Abkhaz people," Dzhergeniya said, adding however that "Abkhazia is not going to become part of Russia."
Abkhazia's vice president, Valery Arshba, did not rule out the possibility that Abkhazia may join Russia, telling Interfax that a referendum could be held to decide the issue.
Georgia has repeatedly accused Russia of supporting Abkhaz separatists and even using its air force to bomb Georgian villages in the Kodori area, where fierce fighting between Abkhaz troops and partisan guerrillas erupted earlier this month.
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