2006 Kodori crisis

2006 Kodori Crisis

Date	July 22–28, 2006
Location	Kodori Gorge, Abkhazia
Result	Georgian Government Victory

Belligerents

Georgia

Emzar Kvitsiani factions Alleged Support:

Abkhaz Military
Russian Peacekeepers

Commanders and leaders

Vano Merabishvili

Emzar Kvitsiani

Casualties and losses

1 civilian killed
2 MIA special forces officers wounded

Georgia

Emzar Kvitsiani factions Alleged Support:

The 2006 Kodori crisis erupted in late July 2006 in Abkhazia's Kodori Gorge, when a local militia leader declared his opposition to the Government of Georgia, which sent police forces to disarm the rebels. The upper part of the Kodori Gorge was at that time the only portion of Abkhazia, Georgia's breakaway republic, not controlled by the Abkhaz authorities.

The Kodori Gorge, with its forested landscapes and rocky hills, lies in the Greater Caucasus mountains, in the northeastern corner of Abkhazia. In spite of several Abkhaz attempts to gain hold of this strategic gorge inhabited by the Svans, a local subgroup of the Georgian people, the upper part of the gorge has never been under the control of the secessionists since the Abkhazian war. It has remained under precarious control of the central Georgian government, but the government of the area has effectively been run, until the recent crisis, by a local authority and warlord Emzar Kvitsiani, who previously led the defense of the gorge against the Abkhaz separatist forces in the capacity of the commander of the local Monadire (literally: "Hunter") militia force and an envoy of the former President of Georgia named Eduard Shevardnadze. After the ouster of Shevardnadze in the bloodless Rose Revolution in 2003, the new Georgian government disbanded the Monadire force and abolished Kvitsiani's post. There have also been strong suspicions about Kvitsiani's involvement in smuggling and other criminal activities like providing shelter to several criminal authorities, wanted by Georgian police.

...
Wikipedia