RUSSIAN PEACEKEEPERS DETAINED IN GEORGIA-ABKHAZIA CONFLICT ZONE

RIA Novosti, Russia
March 21 2005

TBILISI, March 21 (RIA Novosti) – The Georgian law-enforcement
agencies have detained four armed Russian peacekeepers in the zone
of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict.

The Russian peacekeepers, among which are one Armenian, two Russians
and one Kabardinian, had no identification papers about them, the
local police of the Samegrelo region has told RIA Novosti.

“They did not obey the demands of the Georgian police to surrender
arms and produce the papers. The rapid deployment squad had to fire
in the air as a warning and they surrendered”, the police said.

Peacekeepers say that they were found outside the 30-kilometer security
zone of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict by chance and were looking for
the lost horse.

At the present moment, the detained are kept in the headquarters of
the rapid deployment squad of the Georgian Interior Ministry and are
being interrogated by the Georgian police.

The officer and the thee men, attached to a post in the Gali district
of Abkhazia, were discovered in the territory of the Zugdidi district
controlled by the Georgian side, the Novosti-Georgia news agency has
been told at the regional security service.

The peacekeeper command has been notified of the fact. The detained
will be passed to the command today.