SUKHUMI, July 25 (RIA Novosti) - Russian peacekeepers have detained two Georgian light-armored prime movers and two cars in the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict zone, a mission spokesman said Tuesday.
He said peacekeepers had also detained 10 armed officers of the Georgian Defense Ministry in the incident, which occurred Monday night, and military police who failed to explain their presence in the conflict zone.
The spokesman said UN representatives had recorded the detention of the military hardware in the conflict zone and added that the movement of armed vehicles in the area violated the 1994 Moscow ceasefire agreement to end fighting between Georgia's central authorities and the self-proclaimed republic.
UN and Georgian representatives will be involved in an investigation of the incident, the spokesman added.
Sergei Chaban, commander of the Russian peacekeepers, said Tbilisi officials were yet to respond to the presence of military hardware in the conflict zone.
But Valery Dzhaparidze, commander of the Georgian peacekeeping battalion, denied that either the vehicles or the officers had been detained and said the problem had been resolved.
"There was no detention," he said, adding that Georgian vehicles were released last night.
He also said UN representatives had confirmed that light-armored prime movers did not constitute military hardware and their presence in the conflict zone was not a violation of the Moscow agreement.
Russian peacekeeping force has been stationed in the zone of the conflict, in northwestern Georgia, since the early 1990s. But the incident is the latest in a string affecting the peacekeepers in Abkhazia and another breakaway region, South Ossetia. Georgia's parliament voted July 18 to replace the Russian peacekeepers with an international contingent.
