HAVE GEORGIAN GUERRILLAS SEIZED GROUND IN ABKHAZIA.

According to Georgian reports, some of them from State Security Ministry officials, Georgian “self-defense units” seized control of the villages Saberio and Khumushkuri in Abkhazia on May 2 and 3, respectively. The Georgian armed groups are said to have raised the Georgian flag and to have beaten back Abkhaz attempts to retake the two villages, killing six Abkhaz soldiers in the two clashes. Both villages are situated in Gali district, some of whose ethnic Georgian inhabitants have returned in an incipient reversal of the 1993 ethnic cleansing. Saberio is situated near the dam of the Inguri hydropower station, which lies just within Abkhazia and represents a prize object in this conflict. The Abkhaz side has not yet commented on these developments which, if confirmed, could herald an entirely new phase in the conflict. (Prime-News, Itar-Tass, May 2 and 3)

ARMENIA TO RETURN GERMAN CULTURAL VALUABLES.