Georgia Condemns Russia Over Troops in Abkhazia
By HELENA BEDWELL,
TBILISI, Georgia — Georgia condemned the movement of Russian troops and armor into the breakaway region of Abkhazia after Russia said Tuesday that it's bolstering its peacekeeping force in the region.
The Foreign Ministry said Russian armored vehicles, heavy artillery, and troop reinforcements entered Georgian territory near the Psou River in Abkhazia. "The government of Georgia strongly condemns this act of aggression disguised as a peacekeeping operation," the ministry said late Tuesday in an e-mail statement.
Russia "is trying to drag us into a military operation," the speaker of Georgia's parliament, Nino Burjanadze, said yesterday in televised comments. "I'm concerned that Russia has chosen this path, and I assure you that Georgia will respond appropriately to these attempts to violate its sovereignty, and so will the international community."
Russia's Defense Ministry yesterday said it increased its peacekeeping force in Abkhazia and added 15 observation posts on the Abkhaz border with the rest of Georgia in response to "provocative actions" by Georgian forces. About 2,000 Russian peacekeepers are stationed in Abkhazia under a Commonwealth of Independent States mandate.
President Saakashvili of Georgia accused Russia of backing separatist regimes in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, where Russian peacekeepers are stationed and where most citizens hold Russian passports. He has pledged to bring both regions, which broke away from Georgia during wars in the 1990s, back under the control of the government in Tbilisi.
A spokesman for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, James Appathurai, said Russia's decision to increase its peacekeeping force in Abkhazia is "raising tensions."
"Rhetoric concerning the use of force has increased tensions and undermined Georgia's territorial integrity," he said.
Mr. Saakashvili said in a televised address to the nation Tuesday that Russia is trying to "drag" Abkhazia into a confrontation with the rest of Georgia. "We don't want war, and we don't want a single Abkhazian or Ossetian to die," Mr. Saakashvili said, referring to South Ossetia, another separatist region.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said in Luxembourg that Russia "isn't planning to go to war." He said the terms of the 1994 cease-fire agreement allow Russia to increase its peacekeeping contingent in the region.
