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State Dept. Crowding Russia Out of Abkhazia
// Condoleezza Rice ready to get involved
A European Union delegation consisting of the foreign ministers of Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden and Poland arrived in Tbilisi yesterday. They will assess the seriousness of the situation in the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict zone and the possible consequences of the new tensions between Georgia and Russia. A U.S. State Department delegation pursuing the same goals left Tbilisi the same day. Thus Georgia is implementing its plan to involve Western intermediaries in the settlement of the conflict.
The main topics at the meetings between the EU delegation and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, according to the president’s press service, are Russian-Georgian relations and the situation in Abkhazia. The Georgians tried to convey to the EU representatives the need for changes in the format of the negotiation process in Abkhazia. As Georgian Foreign Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili stated, Georgia insists that the EU observers become a direct participant in the negotiation process. Georgian authorities are thus trying to balance out Russia’s role as the sole intermediary in the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict. The EU representatives, however, listened to the Georgian position and limited themselves to statements about respect for Georgia’s territorial integrity and the need for a peaceful solution to the Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-Ossetian conflicts. Saakashvili found his guests’ reaction to events in Abkhazia too reserved. “I am grateful to the European states and organizations for the statements of support for Georgia that they made,” he said. “But those statements, especially where refugees are concerned, are not enough. The territorial integrity of Georgia should be restored and we are waiting for political support in this process from our friends.”
The Georgian authorities’ policy of involving European and American diplomats in the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict has borne its first fruits. Yesterday U.S. Deputy Undersecretary of State Matthew Bryza, who had spent the previous weekend in Sukhumi and the Gali District of Abkhazia, made several symbolic statements in Tbilisi, saying there is hope for the restoration of relations between Tbilisi and Sukhumi, but direct negotiations are needed first. He expressed hope that direct negotiations, without intermediaries, would take place, hinting that Russia’s intercession would be counterproductive. He said that there may be people in Moscow who want the conflict to deepen, but he hoped Sukhumi and Tbilisi could find a way along with Moscow to reduce tensions in the region.
After those statements, Georgian authorities suggested that the United States would adopt an active policy of insistence on direct Georgian-Abkhazian negotiations and, with that goal in mind, there may be a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Abkhazian President Sergey Bagapsh in the near future. “Georgia will not object to such a meeting, because it will be beneficial to both Georgia and Abkhazia,” a source in the Georgian government explained to Kommersant. “It will be much easier for Tbilisi and Sukhumi to reach a compromise with the intercession of the U.S. than with that of Russia.” That information has not been confirmed by the Abkhazians. Abkhazian Foreign Minister Sergey Shamba said that the U.S. State Department representative’s visit to Abkhazia was of a “reconnaissance” nature. “They tried to understand how militant we are and whether we are ready to negotiate. We made our position clear. We have stated repeatedly to our Georgian and American colleagues that t he renewal of negotiations between Sukhumi and Tbilisi will be possible only when Georgian forces are withdrawn from Kodori Gorge and Georgia signs a nonaggression pact. No other options will be discussed.”
At the same time, relations between Georgian and Abkhazia are becoming ever more complicated. Yesterday Abkhazia announced that two morew unpiloted flying devices had been shot down after, in the words of the Abkhazian Defense Ministry “violat[ing] the air boundary between Georgia and Abkhazia.” According to that ministry, all the Georgian reconnaissance aircraft were downed by Abkhazian land-to-air antiaircraft weapons. “Seven unpiloted aircraft that violated our airspace have been destroyed,” Kommersant was told in the Abkhazian Defense Ministry. “The last one was armed with an air-to-air missile and that means that part of its assignment was to shoot down our destroyer. Possibly it wanted to receive data on the type of our destroyers that way.”
“However, the Georgian side has officially confirmed the loss of only one unpiloted aircraft. According to the Georgian Defense Ministry, that aircraft was shot down by a Russian destroyer that took off from the airbase at Gudauta. The Georgian ministry offers videotaped footage in which an unknown destroyer with two vertical tail fins (that is, a Su or MiG, not an L-39, as claimed earlier) shoots down an unpiloted aircraft with an air-to-air missile. Georgian specialists have shown that footage to EU and State Department representatives. The Abkhazian side has expressed doubts about the authenticity of the recording. Sukhumi also says that the recording does not prove anything – there is no proof that the destroyer belonged to the Russian Air Force. “All of our airplanes, including military planes, were purchased by Abkhazian authorities and belong to the republic,” the Abkhazian Defense Ministry told Kommersant. “We must defend our territory. And we will continue to shoot down violators of our airspace.”
Georgy Dvali, Tbilisi; Olga Allenova
All the Article in Russian as of May 13, 2008
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