SUKHUMI, Georgia (AP) – The breakaway region of Abkhazia broke off all contacts with the Georgian central government Friday, an official said, following the abduction of a local elections chief that Abkhazia blamed on Georgian forces.
Kristian Bzhaniya, a spokesman for President Sergei Bagapsh, said regional leaders demanded that Georgian authorities release the election official, David Sigua, who was seized by armed men in the Gali district on Feb. 3. A village chief, Bargebi Fridon, was also abducted.
“On the eve of local and parliamentary elections, Georgian special forces are involved in stoking tensions and creating an atmosphere of fear in the Gali region,” Bzhaniya said. “Therefore no contacts will be possible until the abducted people are returned.”
Georgian officials have accused separatists of staging the abduction to discredit the Georgian government and incite tensions ahead of local elections later this month and parliamentary elections in March.
The Gali district is controlled by Abkhazian authorities but is largely populated by ethnic Georgians.
Abkhazia and another separatist region, South Ossetia, both broke from Georgia during wars in the early 1990s. They have run their own affairs since then without international recognition, cultivating close ties with Russia, which deployed peacekeepers to both regions.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has vowed to bring both regions back under the central government’s control.
