Stanislav Lakoba - Georgian security forces are trying to destabilize the situation in the Gal district of Abkhazia
SUKHUM -- A few days ago the president convened a meeting to discuss the deteriorating situation in Gal. It was decided to raise this issue at a meeting of the Security Council.
Security Council secretary Stanislav Lakoba told Apsnypress that the situation has indeed become more tense and complicated recently. “As you know, terrorist attacks are being staged against police officers and village officials. There have already been numerous victims,” Lakoba said. “As a rule, those killed are Georgians who cooperate with the Abkhaz authorities, and this is done deliberately. The situation has become particular tense since the end of 2011 and continues to worsen.”
According to the Security Council secretary, all the traces lead to Georgian territory, from which the terrorist groups are dispatched.
"As noted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the attacks usually occur on the eve of the Geneva meetings, to create the impression that the Abkhaz authorities and the Russian border guards are unable to keep the situation under control,” Lakoba said. “The Security Council has specific information and concerns about how things will develop further.”
Stanislav Lakoba recalled that at one point Georgian opposition representatives used to claim that death squads were being created on the border between Abkhazia and Mingrelia that could be deployed in a struggle with Georgia’s opposition forces.
"It's interesting that that happened just when many Georgian terrorists who operated in Abkhazia under Shevardnadze, but were sentenced to long prison terms after Saakashvili came to power, were being released from prison. They were all released at this time before serving out their prison terms. These groups were trained in special centers in Anaklia under the auspices of the Georgian special services and Western instructors. Soon, these groups will appear in the Gal district and carry out a series of sabotage and terrorist acts," said Lakoba.
He thinks it likely that the Tbilisi authorities are preparing for the upcoming parliamentary elections in October 2012 and presidential election in March 2013, and will try to anticipate the future actions of the opposition forces. "They were particularly frightened by the huge rallies in Tbilisi (more than 100,000 people), and in Ozurgeti, the capital of Guria,” Lakoba said. “The possibility cannot be ruled out that if the risk of losing power arises, Saakashvili and his entourage, relying on the services that control the criminal and terrorist groups in the border zone of Abkhazia, may provoke an incident in order to destabilize the situation. And also to provoke the Russian troops and Abkhaz forces. In that case, the Georgian leadership will try to divert protests in Tbilisi and focus public attention on the purported threat from Russia. "
This, in Lakoba’s opinion, would give the Georgian authorities a pretext to declare a nation-wide state of emergency, launch reprisals against the opposition, and delay the elections.
"This is directed not so much against Abkhazia as against Saakashvili’s political opponents in Tbilisi," Abkhaz Security Council Secretary Stanislav Lakoba thinks.