16:59, 24 May 2004

Georgian media report on Cossacks terrorizing locals in Georgian-Abkhazian conflict zone

Some 500 armed Russian Cossacks have appeared in the zone of the Abkhazian conflict, in the Gali district, which is controlled by Abkhazia but populated mainly by Georgians. This information was spread by local residents, interviews with whom the Georgian television broadcast today, May 24.

The Gali residents assert that under the pretext of searching for weapons, the Cossacks "raid houses of local people, terrorize them, extort money from them, and beat young men." And all roads leading to the neighboring Zugdidi district, which is controlled by the Georgian authorities, are blocked by Abkhazian security agencies, according to the locals. However several families managed to leave the Gali district using forest paths at night.

It should be noted that a unit of the Kuban Cossack Force, which the Abkhazian Cossacks joined in their time, arrived in Sukhumi on May 22. During the visit, the Cossacks form Russia's Krasnodar Territory and the Abkhazian side signed a treaty on friendship and cooperation.

Source: REGNUM News Agency