Khaleej Times: Abkhaz leader threatens to sink Georgian ships in its waters (AFP)

24 July 2005

The leader of the breakaway republic of Abkhazia on the Black Sea coast vowed yesterday to sink any Georgian ship that entered its waters after peace talks with Georgia broke down, Russian news agencies reported.

“Abkhaz army units have received the order to sink Georgian ships if they appear in Abkhaz waters,” Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Sergei Bagapsh, president of the self-proclaimed republic of Abkhazia, as saying.

Since coming to power last year after a “rose revolution,” Georgia’s pro-Western President Mikhail Saakashvili has pledged to bring back under Tbilisi’s control Abkhazia and another breakaway region, South Ossetia.

In May, US President George W. Bush vowed to assist Saakashvili in resolving the separatist conflicts peacefully, after violence between Georgian and South Ossetian authorities flared up in 2004.

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Abkhazia, South Ossetia to Sign Comprehensive Agreement

After signing a communiqué on cooperation in Abkhaz town of Gagra on July 26, the leaders of breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia will sign, as they said, a comprehensive agreement between the two unrecognized republics’ in South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali in “nearest future,” the Abkhaz news agency Apsnipress reported.

“Singing of this communiqué confirms unity and readiness of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to provide mutual assistance,” Sergey Bagapsh, the President of breakaway Abkhazia said after signing ceremony.

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RIA Novosti: Abkhazia representatives agree to attend Thursday security meeting

Abkhazia has agreed to participate in a security meeting scheduled Thursday here, said UN special representative to Georgia Heidi Tagliavini.

The meeting will also bring together representatives of the Group of Friends of the UN Secretary General for Georgia: Russia, the United States, France, Germany, and Britain.

Georgia and Abkhazia have more than enough to discuss in the area of security guarantees, said Tagliavini.

We are ready to discuss any issues regarding security guarantees at the meeting due on August 4 and proposals to draft a document or a statement on non-resumption of combat activities and return of refugees, Tagliavini said.

It might not happen right away because it is difficult enough to draft a declaration to that effect. It will be the first meeting where the sides will lay out their proposals, and I hope that we will be able to make some progress towards the document, she said.

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ITAR-TASS: Abkhazia’s NGOs ask Russian president to recognize republic

Abkhazia’s non-governmental organizations have asked Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow’s Mayor Yuri Luzhkov to recognize the self-proclaimed republic’s independence.

“Over 80 percent of Abkhazia’s residents are Russian citizens and the number of Russian citizens resident in Abkhazia has been growing with every day. Those who still do not have Russian citizenship have so far been unable to pay for citizenship and passport acquisition procedures.”

The Coordinating Council argues that Abkhazia is not part of Georgia and is free to decide its future on its own. To support this claim it mentions a number of legal acts adopted in the last days of the USSR, and in the first post-Soviet years, as well as results of plebiscites held at that time.

The authors of the message say that Russia is a legal successor of the Soviet Union and those legal acts are still effective.

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RIA Novosti: Large-scale military maneuvers in Abkhazia

11/ 08/ 2005

Large-scale military exercises are scheduled for August 15-17 in Abkhazia, the Defense Minister of the self-proclaimed republic in Georgia told RIA Novosti.

According to Sultan Sosnaliyev, the exercises will be the largest since 2002, when the armed clashes between Georgia and Abkhazia ended. Aside from regular military units, several brigades of reservists will participate in the maneuvers. The minister invited the media to provide news coverage of the exercises.

The exercises will include demonstration firing and an amphibious assault landing.

Sosnaliyev said that the goal of the exercises was to practice combat tactics, to eliminate an enemy after it has performed an amphibious assault landing, and to deploy reserves to repel enemy attacks from the sea or the mountains.

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Civil Georgia: Kommersant: Abkhaz Military Training Cut Short because of UN Observer Presence

2005-08-21

Russia's Kommersant daily reported on August 20 from the military excercises in Abkhazia, that the trainings were cut short following the unexpected arrival of the UN observers, who were filming the excercises on video cameras.

According to the reporter, chief of staff of the Abkhaz army Anatoly Zaytsev unexpectedly announced that the excercises would last only an hour as "there would not be enough ammunition."

the Abkhaz troops refrained from using heavy mortars and Su-25 Frogfoot jets for the same reason. Anti-aircraft guns, tanks, one Mi-8 and two Czech made jet trainer L-39s were used in the training.

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Civil Georgia: Abkhaz PM: We Won't Trade in Our Freedom

2005-08-25

Abkhaz prime minister Aleksander Ankvab told Regnum news agency that the independence of Abkhazia will not be traded in for the economic opportunities and international assistance. In the interview, Ankvab criticized western diplomats and said Abkhazia finds "far better understanding" of its claims in Russia.

"Representatives of western diplomatic circles, sorry for rough language, always rub it in our face [that Abkhazia is not internationally recognized], but they can not take away our natural right to being independent and free. We are not asking to enter anything and don't go around begging - we do not need a banana they can offer. If they want to speak in a dignified manner, we are ready to respond, but to try with economic promises to return us somewhere [i.e. Georgia] - there is a will of the people and it will not change," Ankvab said.

"We see no linkage between our political aims and an opportunity for receiving [foreign] loans," he added.

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OSCE Press release: OSCE Chairman-in-Office condemns shelling of civilian area in South Ossetia

21 September 2005

The Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, has condemned those who launched an artillery attack last night in a populated area of Tskhinvali, the main town in the zone of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict.

"The firing of heavy weapons into civilian areas is not only a serious breach of the ceasefire agreement, but it is also against all norms of civilized behaviour and decency. I have no hesitation in totally condemning this act", he said.

It is believed around 10 civilians were injured in last night's attack. No deaths have been reported.

"In the light of this and other events, I would support the Mission's repeated call for an early meeting at the highest level between the sides."

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Civil Georgia: Defence Minister Says Tskhinvali Incident is ‘Provocation

2005-09-22

In a statement issued on September 21 Georgian Defence Minister Irakli Okruashvili described the incident involving a mortar attack on South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali on September 20 as a provocation.

He said, that “when the talks on peaceful resolution of conflict have entered the crucial phase and the meeting between Georgian Prime Minister and South Ossetian leader has already been planned, such development of events was not in our interests.”

The Georgian Defense Minister did not rule out that this incident is linked with serious claims raised by the Georgian Parliament towards the Russian peacekeepers stationed in the South Ossetian conflict zone, “which are busy with inspiring such provocations.”

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Civil Georgia: Georgian Envoy Calls for UN-led Peace Operation in Abkhazia

2005-10-29


In his letter to the UN Security Council sent on October 27, Georgia’s Ambassador to the UN Revaz Adamia said that the Russian-led peacekeeping operation has “exhausted its potential” and called for designing full-scale international, UN-led peacekeeping operation in Abkhazia.

Ambassador Adamia notes that positive developments in respect of the Abkhaz conflict resolution “are pretty much exhausted” by the UN-mediated fourth meeting between the Georgian and Abkhaz sides on security guarantees, which was held in August.

“That positive momentum was marred by large-scale Abkhaz military exercise – the largest in the post-war period. Most alarmingly, those exercises were held in the zone of responsibility of the Russian PKF, which, unlike UNOMIG, left the events without comment. Moreover, we have no doubt on our mind that financing and equipment for these exercises came from the Russian Federation,” the Georgian Ambassador says.

“We are witnessing… trivial military annexation of part of Georgia by Russia, where these military units [Russian peacekeepers] are securing borders of annexed territories,” the Georgian Ambassador says.

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Civil Georgia: Georgian Police Arrest S.Ossetian Officials

2005-12-06 17:51:04


The Georgian police arrested on December 6 chief of the breakaway South Ossetia’s Akhalgori (Leningori) district administration and three other officials from the same administration, the South Ossetian Press and Information Committee reported.

According to the South Ossetian reports, four men were arrested while driving from the Akhalgori district, which in South Ossetia is known as Leningori, in the direction of the breakaway region’s capital Tskhinvali. The South Ossetian Press and Information Committee has described this detention as “an abduction.”

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Civil Georgia: 'Dozen' of Civilians Released, but Four Remain Held in S.Ossetia

2005-12-06 21:53:09


About dozen of Georgian civilians, detained by the South Ossetian militiamen on Tuesday were released later on December 6, but three Georgian policemen and one civilian still remain held by the South Ossetian side, Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said.

“We do not want confrontation, we want to completely follow [South Ossetian] peace plan which we have so that not to thwart it. That is why we refrain from undertaking radical steps, but everyone knows, they [South Ossetian side] know that if they do not release the Georgian citizens, this step [detention of policemen and civilian] will worth high cost for them,” Merabishvili said.

These detentions follow the arrest of a South Ossetian police official by the Georgian Military Police in the conflict zone on December 5. Viacheslav Kudziev, deputy chief of police in the Ossetian village of Artsevi, was injured in a shootout with a unit from the Georgian Military Police, when the latter tried to arrest him near the Georgian village of Ergneti.

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Civil Georgia: S.Ossetian Official: Tskhinvali, Tbilisi Exchange Detainees

2005-12-07 18:18


Interior Minister of breakaway South Ossetian Mikhail Mindzaev denied on Wednesday that the South Ossetian side detained Georgian civilians on December 6, but confirmed that four Georgian policemen were arrested for possessing drugs, the South Ossetian Press and Information Committee reported.

“None of the civilian have been detained by us in the conflict zone. We have only arrested four Georgian policemen for possessing drugs. After negotiations with the representatives of the law enforcement agencies of Georgia and with mediation by the Joint Peacekeeping Forces, we have agreed to exchange these policemen for four employees of the Leningori district administration in order to defuse tensions,” Mikhail Mindzaev said.

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Interfax: Abkhazia official fears Georgia is preparing new war


Sukhumi believes a renewal of Georgian-Abkhaz fighting is a possibility and is sure that Tbilisi is preparing for it.

"The Georgian authorities lack time. They failed to settle the conflict politically, because we defined our course long ago, and that is independence and Abkhazia can accept neither extended autonomy nor special status. Tbilisi has begun a buildup," Abkhaz Defense Minister, Lt. Gen. Sultan Sosnaliyev said in an interview published by in the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper on Friday.

U.S. experts train Georgian soldiers and officers study abroad. Modern arms and equipment are delivered to the country. Military training is carried out constantly. They are creating this army for a reason," Sosnaliyev said. In his opinion, Georgian-Abkhaz war will break out when the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline begins full operation.

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