The 144 members of parliament present unanimously adopted a resolution saying that the government should begin all procedures to replace the current CIS contingent in Abkhazia and the Russian, South Ossetian and Georgian troops in South Ossetia with international peacekeepers.
Collective peacekeeping forces from the Commonwealth of Independent States were introduced in Abkhazia under an agreement of 1994, and joint peacekeeping forces entered South Ossetia in 1992. In 12 years, 112 Russian peacekeepers have died in the Abkhazian conflict zone.
Russia has said that a resolution to the effect would be unilateral and illegal because it was up to all the parties involved to decide on the pullout. Georgia accuses Russia of backing separatism in the breakaway republics.
The parliamentary opposition of Georgia shunned the emergency session Tuesday, saying the draft resolution was too general and lacked details and a timeframe.
And South Ossetia reacted angrily, with Murat Dzhioyev, the unrecognized foreign minister of the republic, saying, "The battle Georgia is waging against the peacekeeping forces is a battle against peace and against the people who live in the conflict zones."
On July 11, Georgian parliamentary Speaker Nino Burdzhanadze spoke at a closed UN Security Council session and asked for an international contingent to be introduced in the conflict zones.
The Georgian parliament instructed the government to work to inform Abkhazian and South Ossetian people in a bid to boost trust between the sides.
In October, Georgian legislators adopted another resolution saying that if Russian peacekeepers failed to fulfill their mission, parliament would suspend them from the conflict zones.
On Saturday, Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said that if Georgia adopted the resolution, Russia would consult Abkhazia.
"The answer is very simple: Russia will ask the opinion of another side in the conflict," he said.
Foreign Minister of Abkhazia Sergei Shamba said Monday a decision on Russian peacekeepers in the republic had to be adopted by CIS leaders.
"This is a question pertaining to the entire negotiating process and cannot be resolved unilaterally because it will then require revision of the fundamental document - a statement on political regulation of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict as of April 4, 1994," he said.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said Russian peacekeepers had played a vital stabilizing role in the region acting in line with a UN Security Council resolution. Senior Georgian parliamentarian Givi Targamadze said Monday Russian peacekeepers stood in the way of a peaceful resolution of the conflicts.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili could meet on the sidelines of a CIS summit due in Moscow on July 21-23.
