Georgian authorities said earlier they had launched a police operation in the Kodori Gorge, the only Tbilisi-controlled part of Abkhazia, to disarm a militia led by Emzar Kvitsiani, a former presidential envoy to the gorge.
"Georgia respects the commitments it assumed during the negotiating process on the conflict resolution in Abkhazia and categorically rules out that the police operation might expand into territory controlled de facto by Abkhazia's authorities," the Georgian Embassy said in a statement.
The embassy reiterated Tbilisi's official position that the country was conducting a police and not a military operation in the gorge to protect local citizens from criminal groups.
"The government of Georgia categorically rules out conducting a military operation in the Kodori Gorge," the statement said. "The main aim of the police operation in the region is to protect local citizens from criminal elements and restore law and order."
Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli also said in Brussels at a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer that the Georgian operation was not aimed against Abkhazia.
"The operation of Georgian servicemen in the Kodori Gorge is a limited police operation against criminals," Nogaideli said, adding that Tbilisi would only pursue peaceful ways to resolve conflicts dating back to the early 1990s with Abkhazia and another breakaway republic, South Ossetia.
Russian General Sergei Chaban, commander of the CIS peacekeeping force in the region, said earlier Wednesday that Georgia was conducting a military rather than police operation in the Kodori Gorge.
Chaban said that Georgia was massing troops in the gorge, which was divided after the Georgian-Abkhazian war of 1992-1993. The lower part is controlled by Abkhazia and the upper part by Georgia.
"At 8:50 a.m. (4:50 a.m. GMT), a convoy of 10 KAMAZ trucks, four ZIL trucks, and four ambulances passed through peacekeeping outposts accompanied by a helicopter," he said.
The general also said the troops were dressed in uniforms worn by Georgian soldiers in Iraq.
The operation started after Kvitsiani said he did not recognize Tbilisi's rule. He said Georgian troops were moving to the area to disarm former members of his Hunter border guard battalion, which was formally disbanded in 2005, though most members refused to lay down their arms.
