From: MSN Nicknamepsychoteddybear24 (Original Message) Sent: 8/4/2006 12:39 AM
THE KODORI OPERATION: SMALL VICTORIOUS INTERVENTION OR INCONCLUSIVE
SHOW OF FORCE? Georgian officials have sought to present last
week's incursion into the Kodori Gorge as a major territorial
gain. But such claims gloss over the Georgian failure to apprehend
former Kodori Governor Emzar Kvitsiani, whose defiance of the
Georgian authorities served as the catalyst for what Tbilisi claims
was simply a police operation.
Speaking on national television on July 28, Georgian
President Mikheil Saakashvili said that Georgia now "directly
controls a very important strategic part of the territory of
Abkhazia," and will "establish Georgian jurisdiction and
constitutional order in the heart" of that breakaway region. Georgian
Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili said the same day that
"practically the whole of the gorge is under the control of the
police."
Such claims are, however, an exaggeration, insofar as Georgia
has merely extended its control over ...
>> full artcle...