DONORS RAISE A10.8 MILLION TO PROMOTE PEACE IN SOUTH OSSETIA

AP Worldstream
Jun 14, 2006

International donors raised A10.8 million (US$13.6 million) Wednesday
to promote peace and reconciliation in Georgia’s breakaway South
Ossetia region.

The money will be used in social projects to bring together the
region’s Ossetian and Georgian communities, said Peter Semneby,
the European Union’s top envoy to the South Caucasus region.

"We are looking forward to the EU’s engagement in conflict resolution,"
in the region said Georgia’s Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli who
attended talks in Brussels with donor nations and EU officials.

The EU and its member states will contribute about two-thirds of the
amount, with Russia and the United States making up the rest.

Semneby was optimistic that the EU could wrap up agreements to improve
political, economic and security ties with Georgia and its neighbors
Armenia and Azerbaijan within a few months to guide the three Caucasus
republics into the EU’s "neighborhood policy."

The EU hopes such talks will help resolve territorial disputes in
the region.