Blast in Georgian Rebel Region Kills 4
Michael Schwirtz
The New York Times Company
July 8, 2008
MOSCOW — An explosion in a cafe in a separatist region of the former
Soviet republic of Georgia killed four people Sunday night, including
a security service official from the rebel government. Six people
were injured in the blast.
It was latest in at least half a dozen bombings in less than a week
in Abkhazia and the first to cause deaths.
Although no suspects have been identified, leaders of the separatist
government blamed Georgia, which they accused of inflaming a 15-year
conflict that has been marked by increasing violence in recent
months. Georgia, which claims Abkhazia as part of its territory,
has denied involvement.
The bomb exploded at about 11 p.m. Sunday at a café in the city of
Gali in the southeast of Abkhazia close to the Georgian border, said
Alkhad D. Cholokua, a spokesman for the president of the separatist
government. The blast killed the chief of the security service in
Gali, along with a border guard. A female employee of the cafe and a
translator for the United Nations mission in Abkhazia were also killed.
"We are considering many possibilities, but the main theory is that
this was a terrorist attack," said Mr. Cholokua.
Sergei V. Bagapsh, Abkhazia’s president, told the Interfax news
agency on Monday that Georgia had planted the bomb to "destabilize
the regional situation."
"The new incident confirms that Georgia has taken the path of state
terrorism," he said.
Abkhazia, a slice of mountains and subtropical beaches on the Black
Sea, gained de facto independence from Georgia following a fierce
war from 1992 to 1993 that left thousands dead. Since then, sporadic
violence has punctuated an uneasy stalemate.
The conflict intensified after Georgia’s president, Mikheil
Saakashvili, took office in 2004 vowing to bring Abkhazia and another
breakaway region, South Ossetia, under Georgia’s control. In recent
months, Abkhaz officials have accused Georgia of preparing for
another war.
Shota Utiashvili, a senior official in the Georgian interior ministry,
said Georgia had nothing to do with Sunday’s explosion.
"We heard from the media about the explosion in Gali," he said. "All
the information that we have about that explosion comes from open
sources."
Georgian police are also investigating five nearly simultaneous
explosions just across the border from Gali in the Georgian-controlled
Zugdidi region, Mr. Utiashvili said. One police officer was slightly
injured.
Georgia has accused Russia in the past of aiding the separatists,
providing them with weapons and other equipment. Russia says it
maintains a peacekeeping force of about 2,500 troops in Abkhazia,
although Georgia says there could be hundreds more clandestinely
training and leading Abkhaz units.
Moscow has repeatedly denied the claims, and charges Georgia with
stoking tensions.
In a meeting with President Bush on Monday at the Group of 8 meeting
in Japan, President Dmitry A. Medvedev of Russia said his country was
prepared to normalize relations with Georgia, but that Georgia lacked
the will to move toward reconciliation, the Kremlin Web site said.
A day earlier, according to the Kremlin site, Mr. Medvedev met
with Mr. Saakashvili in Astana, Kazakhstan, and warned his Georgian
counterpart against "inflaming the situation in the region."
–Boundary_(ID_gtbFAz16cO9pJUuWZPTz Wg)–