GEORGIA: FOUR UNITED NATIONS OBSERVERS KIDNAPPED IN GORGE DIVIDING GEORGIA AND ABKHAZIA

Record ID: 338001

  • Title: GEORGIA: FOUR UNITED NATIONS OBSERVERS KIDNAPPED IN GORGE DIVIDING GEORGIA AND ABKHAZIA
  • Date: 5th June 2003
  • Summary: (U4) TBILISI, GEORGIA (JUNE 5, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF UNITED NATIONS (U.N.) FLAGS OUTSIDE BUILDINGS 0.06 2. CLOSE OF U.N. FLAG 0.12 3. SLV OF U.N. CAR DRIVING OUT OF GATES 0.30 4. CLOSE OF SIGN READING "UNITED NATIONS OBSERVER MISSION IN GEORGIA" (UNOMIG) (2 SHOTS) 0.46 5. SLV OF SECURITY OUTSIDE OFFICE 0.51 6.
  • Embargoed: 20th June 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TBILISI AND KODORI GORGE REGION, GEORGIA
  • Country: Georgia
  • Reuters ID: LVA6Z6DVLLNTXS7AJHHQLGAN4YQ
  • Story Text: Four United Nations observers monitoring a truce
    between Georgia and its separatist region of Abkhazia have
    been kidnapped in a gorge dividing the two regions.



    The kidnapping on Thursday (June 5) took place in a
    remote gorge on the truce line between Georgia and Abkhazia.

    The Four U.N. observers were kidnapped along with their
    translator, senior Georgian officials said on Thursday.

    The kidnapping report was confirmed by the United Nations
    office in the Georgian capital Tbilisi by spokesman Marian
    Staszewsky.

    "This happened around 10:25. And our military observers
    who were travelling jointly with CIS PKF personnel were shot
    at by people in an ambush and after a few minutes the radio
    communication, because they had Walkie-Talkies, was
    disrupted." Staszewsky of the United Nations Observers Mission
    (UNOMIG) in Georgia told journalists.

    The U.N. contingent of 100 observers is monitoring a truce
    between Georgia and breakaway Abkhazia, which proclaimed
    itself a separate state after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet
    Union, sparking a war that killed about 10,000 people.

    The kidnap took place in the remote Kodori Gorge, where
    separatists have taken U.N. observers hostage several times in
    the past but released them all unconditionally.

    "We learned later on from Georgian representatives in
    Kadori that they were taken in the forest of the mountains
    somewhere and that Russian peacekeepers were disarmed and
    released. I can not tell you much more because we just
    informed authorities on both sides and CIS PKF on high level
    and maintain contacts and also some diplomatic community is
    also in the picture. So we are sure that every effort will be
    taken to release them in a peaceful way" said Staszewsky.

    Staszewsky confirmed that U.N policy is not to pay any
    ransom.

    In the last such incident, two U.N. observers from Poland
    and Greece were held there in December 2000.

    mos/jrc



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