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Saturday 20th of April 2024, 07:38 CET |
| Shevardnadze refuses to support Russian peacekeepers" presence |
January 13, 2003
Associated Press
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Written by Misha Dzhindzhikhashvili
Posted by HW on April 20, 2024
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Angry at Moscow
Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said Monday that he would not support the presence of Russian peacekeepers in the breakaway province of Abkhazia until Moscow reverses its decisions to issue Russian passports to separatists and restore a railway link to the region without consulting his government.
Railway and passports
Last year [25 december 2002 - BS], Russian officials opened traffic on a railway linking Russia"s Black Sea city of Sochi with Sukhumi, the Abkhazian capital, and started issuing passports to residents of Abkhazia who appealed for Russian citizenship.
Fear of annexation
Shevardnadze said that up to 80,000 of Abkhazia"s estimated 150,000 residents had already received Russian passports.
"It looks like a dress rehearsal for the annexation of our territory," he said at a news conference.
Abkhazia has long pushed for joining Russia, but Moscow has refused the bid, saying it respects Georgia"s sovereignty.
"Violation of agreements"
Russia"s actions have violated agreements between Russia and Georgia, Shevardnadze said. But he stopped short of calling for the withdrawal of the peacekeepers, whose mandate expired last month, saying he hopes Moscow will change its policy. A Georgian government delegation will head to Moscow this week to discuss the issue, he said.
Russia: extending mandate
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement that Russia supports extending the peacekeepers" mandate and that doing so "is in the best interests of Georgia itself."
History
Abkhazia, a lush Black Sea province in Georgia"s northwest, won de facto independence in 1993 after driving out Georgian government forces in two years of fighting. Separatists have refused to bow to Georgia"s control and U.N.-sponsored peace talks have stalled.
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Russian peacekeepers have patrolled the dividing line between separatist and Georgian-controlled territory since 1994 under the auspices of the Commonwealth of Independent States, an alliance of former Soviet republics. Their mandate must be updated regularly.
Abkhazia: please stay
Valery Arshba, vice president in Abkhazia"s self-proclaimed government, praised the Russian peacekeepers, saying that the "situation will be sharply aggravated" if they leave the region, the Interfax news agency reported.
Accusations
Georgia has accused Russian peacekeepers of siding with separatists and refusing to help some 300,000 ethnic Georgian refugees from Abkhazia to return to their homes. Despite the criticism, the Georgian government up to now has kept extending the peacekeepers" presence in the province, fearing that their withdrawal would trigger new violence.
Chechnya
Along with differences over Abkhazia, Russian-Georgian relations have also been marred by the presence of rebels from Russia"s own breakaway province, Chechnya, in Georgia"s Pankisi Gorge.
Georgia rejected Moscow"s demands to let Russian forces enter the gorge and launched its own security sweep in the area last autumn, relying on anti-terrorist training provided by U.S. military instructors. Washington has said that some militants in the gorge could be linked with the al-Qaida terrorist network. |
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