Helicopter carrying U.N. observers shot down over Georgia

Associated Press WriterTBILISI, Georgia (AP) -- A helicopter was shot down Monday over Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region, killing five U.N. military observers and all four others on board, Abkhazian officials said.

Three crew members and a translator were killed along with the U.N. observers, said Vyacheslav Ankvad, deputy defense minister of the self-declared government. He said investigators had not yet reached the site where the helicopter fell because of the difficult, mountainous terrain.

U.N. officials in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, made conflicting statements. A representative who spoke on condition of anonymity said nobody survived the crash, but Alexandra George, political adviser to the U.N. mission, said "we are carrying out a rescue operation" and would not comment on casualties. She confirmed the helicopter was shot down.

The officials did not identify the U.N. workers aboard the helicopter by name or nationality. The crew members were Ukrainians, Abkhazian officials said.

Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency reported that the Mi-8 helicopter was shot down by a rocket 15 minutes after taking off from the Abkhazian capital, Sukhumi. Ankvad said Abkhazian officials had witnessed two shots from a grenade-launcher.

Abkhazian officials claim that Chechen and ethnic Georgian militants have invaded the Kodor Gorge region of Abkhazia in recent days. Georgia's government says its forces are not involved in any fighting there.

Abkhazian separatists drove out Georgian forces in a 1992-93 war that left the separatists in control of Abkhazia. Attempts to reach a political solution have failed, and the Black Sea province has remained plagued by clashes and bombings despite the presence of a Russian peacekeeping force.

The helicopter was shot down over territory "controlled by Chechen and Georgian terrorists who invaded Abkhazian territory from Georgia," said Sergei Shamba, Abkhazia's foreign minister, according to the Interfax news agency. Georgian officials said only that the helicopter had gone down in territory they do not control.

In August, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said he and Abkhazian Prime Minister Anri Dzhergeniya had made rare progress toward a political solution, speaking four times in one night and managing to avert a planned attack by Georgian militants on Abkhazia.

Shevardnadze said the planned attack had been fueled by discontent among ethnic Georgian refugees who were pushed out of their homes and see no hope for return. Following Shevardnadze's intervention, Dzhergeniya said the Abkhazian side was ready to resume U.N.-brokered negotiations.

A group of U.N. observers had been scheduled to resume monitoring of the volatile situation in the Kodor Gorge on Monday, said Dieter Boden, a U.N. official in Tbilisi. The mission was interrupted following the kidnapping of U.N. observers in the area in December.

Georgia has denied Russian and Abkhazian allegations that it has allowed Chechen rebels to take refuge on its territory, though it has permitted refugees from the region's two wars against Russian forces to live there. Georgia is the only foreign country that borders Chechnya.

Abkhazian authorities say a group of Chechen and Georgian militants led by a Chechen, Ruslan Gelayev, tried to seize an Abkhazian village late last week. They say the militants were beaten back and broke into small groups that have taken refuge in the rugged Kodor Gorge.