Foreign Minister Downplays Reopening of Railway Between Russia and Abkhazia

(Tbilisi, January 8, 2003. Civil Georgia) – Georgian Foreign Minister Irakli Menagharishvili told the reporters today that he would refrain from any “loud statement” concerning the reopening of the railway connection between Russia and Abkhazia before the meeting of the UN Security Council in the end of January.

Despite Georgian authorities protest, Russia resumed the railway link with Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia on December 25. 

At the moment IDPs from Abkhazia hold the protest rally at the administrative border between Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia demanding closure of the railway link and withdrawal of the Russian peacekeeping troops from the conflict zone.