Friday 29th of March 2024, 15:41 CET
Georgians demand withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers
January 22, 2003
Associated Press

Posted by HW on March 29, 2024

Refugee protest
About 1,000 Georgian refugees and opposition supporters rallied outside parliament on Wednesday to demand the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from the separatist region of Abkhazia and the termination of a railway link between the Abkhazian capital Sukhumi and the nearby Russian resort of Sochi.

Demand: Shevardnadze step down
Many of the protesters were ethnic Georgians who were evicted from Abkhazia when separatists seized power in 1992. Others were followers of the late Georgian president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, who have been holding regular protests demanding that current president, Eduard Shevardnadze, step down.

Suicide attempt
A 27-year-old protester from Abkhazia, identified as Georgy Lolua, doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire but others quickly extinguished the blaze. He was rushed to a hospital in an ambulance.

Police dispersed the protesters after some tried to erect a tent outside parliament to house hunger strikers.

Peacekeepers
Shevardnadze threatened last week not to endorse an extension of the peacekeepers' mandate until Moscow reversed decisions made last year to issue Russian passports to Abkhazian separatists — which he said was similar to a "dress rehearsal for annexation" — and restore a railway link to the region without consulting Tbilisi.

But he said Monday that despite Georgia's concerns, the peacekeepers' withdrawal could not be justified, and it could lead to long and bloody fighting.

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.
 
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