Breakaway Leaders Meet in Moscow |
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The leaders of breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Sergey Bagapsh and Eduard Kokoity along with Transdnistria's de facto president Igor Smirnov, met in Moscow last week, seeking recognition of their statelets independence. In a parallel visit, US officials arrived in Georgia in an attempt to soothe tensions between Georgia and its secessionist territories. The meeting of the three leaders was organized under the newly ratified inter-parliamentary assembly of the recently formed international organization For Democracy and Rights of Peoples, which the separatist leaders set up earlier this year. During the visit, the leaders Abkhazia and South Ossetia explained under what conditions they would be willing to resume talks with Georgia. "We propose signing an agreement on the non-resumption of hostilities and the non-use of force. If Mr. Saakashvili is ready for this, we are ready to meet with him at any moment," South Ossetia's de facto President Eduard Kokoity stated at a news conference in Moscow. Abkhaz leader Bagapsh said that Abkhazia will not restart talks with Georgia until it withdraws its troops and the Abkhazian government-in-exile from the Tbilisi-controlled Kodori Gorge. "The negotiation process is stalled because of Georgia. The process will not resume until [Georgian] troops have been withdrawn from the Kodori Gorge," Bagapsh declared. The Georgian Foreign Ministry said they will sign an agreement on the non-resumption of hostilities as soon as there is an internationalization of peacekeeping operations in the Abkhaz and South Ossetian conflict zones. The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that the separatist leaders also held talks with representatives of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where the sides discussed the issues of bilateral cooperation between Russia and the breakaway republics. The negotiations were held in a one-on-one format. According to the report, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin congratulated Eduard Kokoity with his "convincing victory" in the November 12 presidential elections of South Ossetia. "[Karasin] has wished him [Kokoity] success in his activities in this top level position. Both sides have expressed their belief that the unanimous support of voters during the [presidential] elections and [independence] referendum will contribute to the peace, stability and economic rehabilitation of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone," the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The same day, the chair of the Duma Committee for the CIS Andrei Kokoshin stated that in the near future the Duma will discuss the issue of the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, NEWSru.com reports. During the trip, the three leaders were also guests on the Russian talk show, Sudite Sami (Judge for Yourself). Russians called into the show to answer the question, "Do you support independence for Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transdnistria?" 81 percent of the callers stated they supported independence, while 19 percent said they did not. US official visiting Sokhumi The US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Matthew Bryza, paid a three-day visit to Georgia, meeting with the President, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defence and the Abkhaz de facto leadership on November 16-18. "I have arrived in Abkhazia to strengthen the relationship with the Abkhaz Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Shamba, but the most important thing is to stimulate the process of conflict resolution between Georgia and Abkhazia," Bryza hopes that Georgian-Abkhazian talks will resume despite the tensions. However, regarding Abkhaz demands to withdraw troops from the Georgian controlled Kodori Gorge, Bryza said that "Georgia is not in favour of this." Talking about the July special operation in the Kodori Gorge, Bryza said "the Georgian side had every right to conduct the special operation." Richard Holbrook, former US ambassador to the UN, who accompanied Bryza on his visit to Sokhumi, claimed Bagapsh's demand to remove Georgian representatives from the Kodori Gorge was "illegal." Bryza also commented on stationing UN police forces in Abkhazia to internalization the peace keeping forces saying, "we all have noticed the problems regarding the crime rate in the Gali district. And the mandate of the CIS peacekeepers does not allow them to combat crime." Before leaving for Sokhumi, Bryza held a briefing on November 17 where he strongly criticized the two referendums in South Ossetia saying that staging a referendum in "an extremely complex situation" will not help resolve conflicts. By Ekaterina Basilaia www.messenger.com.ge
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