Former Hostages Arrived to Tbilisi Unharmed

(Tbilisi, June 11 2003, Civil Georgia) – The four UN employees, who were abducted on June 5 by unidentified armed group from Kodori gorge, were brought to Tbilisi in helicopter today.

At a special press conference in the Foreign Ministry of Georgia Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to Georgia  Heidi Tagliavini thanked President Shevardnadze, who, according to her, personally supervised the search operation from the very beginning.

Tagliavini said, the President informed her that the hostages were released without using force, that was the most important.

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General expressed her gratitude to all the governmental structures.

The kidnappers released the personal of the UN Observers Mission in Georgia on June 10 after the talks with the Georgian authorities, which agreed to provide security guarantees to the kidnappers.

She confirmed that the patrolling of the Kodori gorge will continue, since, under the Moscow agreement, this territory is to be monitored by the UN Observer Mission to Georgia.

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