Peacekeepers cope with their mission

Estimating the 10 years' activity of the CIS Peacekeeping Forces on the maintenance of peace in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, Commander Lieutenant-General Aleksandr Yevteev told the Caucasian Knot correspondent that conditions were being created so that refugees could safely return to the Gali district. "We take a whole series of measures to provide safety at the life support facilities. The fact that 14 thousand people have returned to the region for the last two years is also a result of our work," the commander said to the Apsnipress agency. The peacekeepers ensure the efficient functioning of the mechanism of weekly quadripartite meetings, he added.

By Mr Yevteev's information, 2,250 people perform their duties in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict now, and only Russia has been taken part in the peacekeeping operation for all the ten years. 97 peacekeepers have died for this period, 250 peacekeepers have received wounds of different severity.

The commander estimated the situation in the upper part of the Kodori Gorge as quiet. The road connecting Sukhum, lower Kodor and Verkhnyaya Lata will be reconstructed up to the line separating the conflict parties at the expense of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), Mr Yevteev said.