Tbilisi calls for withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Abkhazia

TBILISI, July 17 (Itar-Tass) - Georgia wants the Collective
Peacekeeping Force to be withdrawn from Abkhazia but it's not going to
push for this decision, Kakha Lomaya, the secretary of the Georgian
Security Council, said on Wednesday.

"The Georgian authorities are ready to pass a decision on the
Collective Peacekeeping Force withdrawal but we are not rushing to adopt
such a document," Lomaya said in a live interview with the Rustavi-2
television company.

"We will pass this decision when the country's leadership decides to
take this step as part of overall measures aimed at settling the
conflict," he went on to say, adding that a diplomatic solution to the
conflict was a more preferable option.

On July 11, the Georgian parliament adopted an appeal to international
organizations and the parliaments of partner countries in which it asks
the world community to back up Tbilisi's peace initiatives for settling
the conflict. They provide for changing the format of peacekeeping
operations in conflict zones and replacing the Collective Peacekeeping
Force by international police forces. Otherwise, the Georgian side will
have to pass legal decisions for declaring as illegitimate the presence of
Russian army units in conflict zones in the territory of Georgia and for
their pullout from the country's territory.
The Collective Peacekeeping Force is staffed with Russian peacekeeping
units. They've been stationed in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian
conflict since 1994. The Collective Peacekeeping Force units serve in
the Abkhazia-controlled Gali district as well as in the Georgia-controlled
Zugdidi and Tsalendzhikhskiy districts.