Civil Georgia, Tbilisi /
12 Aug.'08 / 23:45
Authorities in breakaway Abkhazia said their forces were in fullcontrol of upper Kodori Gorge.
Officials in Tbilisi have confirmed it.However, there are conflicting reports about how the process took place.The Abkhaz side has claimed that its troops took over the area afterfighting with the Georgian forces throughout the day, on August 12.Shota Utiashvili, the Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman, told Civil.Ge that the Georgian forces were withdrawn from the gorge lastnight.
CNN aired brief footage showing an Abkhaz militia taking down the Georgia's national flag from the administrative building in the gorge.Meanwhile, President Saakashvili told a group of foreign journalistson August 12:
"Within a well-prepared plan, several hundred pieces ofthe Russian [military] equipment, Russian airborne troops, commandedby the airborne troops of Russia landed there [in the Kodori Gorge]and expelled and certainly killed part of the population. Wholepopulation from that place is gone. This is classical case of ethniccleansing.
"Upper Kodori gorge was the only part of breakaway Abkhazia underTbilisi's control.
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