SUKHUMI, October 25 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia's conflict minister pledged Thursday to release on Saturday seven military personnel, detained in the mountains of Georgia's secessionist republic of Abkhazia September 20, as a gesture of good will.
David Bakradze made the statement following a meeting with Abkhazian Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba in the UN mission office in Sukhumi, the capital of the self-proclaimed republic.
"I would like to announce a decision by the Georgian side which we consider a gesture of good will: we are ready to hand over the seven detained servicemen within the next two days after completing all the necessary legal procedures," Bakradze said. "I want to ask UN special representative for Georgia Jean Arnault to visit the servicemen's place of confinement and attest that the conditions are acceptable. On Saturday I will ask the UN to arrange for the people to be transported to Sukhumi."
Bakradze said the decision was likely to help "improve the general climate."
Shamba confirmed the information, saying, "The Georgian side has agreed to hand over the border guards with no strings attached."
But he said Tbilisi had not conceded that the clash had taken place on Abkhazian territory. "The Georgian side has apparently agreed to release the servicemen due to the circumstances, including the results of the investigation. It was no use waiting for them to admit that the incident had happened on our territory. The investigation is on going and, of course, we will demand this from Georgia once its results are announced," the minister said.
Abkhazia said on September 20 that a Georgian military group had entered the republic's territory, murdering two and abducting seven Abkhazian border guards, while Tbilisi accused Abkhazia of "armed provocation."
Shamba said he did not think the talks meant the resumption of negotiations on a conflict resolution between Sukhumi and Tbilisi, which broke off in July 2006, when Tbilisi occupied the upper part of the Kodori Gorge, on the de facto border between Georgia and the breakaway republic, and established a parallel Abkhaz administration there.
Mutual accusations of ceasefire violations have been frequent from both Abkhazia and Georgia, whose President Mikheil Saakashvili has vowed to regain control of the region.
Abkhazia declared independence from Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, sparking a bloody conflict in the region.
