Georgian displaced persons demand peacekeepers' withdrawal

Members of at least four organizations representing the Georgian displaced persons forced to flee Abkhazia during the 1992-93 war have issued a statement in Tbilisi demanding the withdrawal from the Abkhaz conflict zone of the Russian peacekeeping force deployed there under the CIS aegis since July 1994, Caucasus Press reported on 3 June. In October 2001, the Georgian parliament adopted a resolution insisting on the peacekeepers' withdrawal (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 12 October 2001), but the UN as well as the Georgian, Abkhaz, and Russian leaderships consider it imprudent to do so. Extending the peacekeepers' mandate indefinitely was discussed at the recent informal CIS summit in St. Petersburg, but no firm decision was taken to do so. LF