TBILISI, July 27 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia's authorities have put a bounty of $55,000 on the head of militia leader and former presidential envoy Emzar Kvitsiani and his nephew, a spokesman for the country's Interior Ministry said Thursday.
Georgia started an operation to detain Kvitsiani Tuesday after he had refused to recognize Tbilisi rule two days earlier. 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.
Kvitsiani is accused of forming and commanding an illegal armed unit, treason and the illegal possession of arms.
Georgian law enforcers said Kvitsiani and his nephew Bacho Argvliani were hiding in the Kodori Gorge, the only Tbilisi-controlled part of the breakaway republic of Abkhazia.
