FACTBOX-BREAKAWAY REGIONS LOOK TO KOSOVO PRECEDENT

Reuters, UK
Sept 28 2007

(Reuters) – Serbs and Albanians hold direct talks on Friday on the
margins of the U.N. General Assembly in New York in a last-ditch
diplomatic bid to decide the fate of the breakaway Serbian province.

The West supports independence, but insists it would not set a
precedent. Other regions of the world, notably in the former Soviet
Union, disagree. Following are a few of the regions that might look
with interest at the Kosovo case:

TRANSDNIESTRIA – Moldova

** A tiny sliver of land on the Dniestr river, Transdniestria broke
away from Moldova in September 1990. A brief war killed hundreds
before Russian troops intervened. The region of 550,000 people is
dominated by Russian-speaking Slavs, who pressed for independence
fearing Moldova’s Romanian-speaking majority would one day join
Romania to the south. Around 1,200 Russian troops remain.

Transdniestria covers one eighth of Moldovan territory but is home
to the bulk of Moldova’s industrial base.

ABKHAZIA AND SOUTH OSSETIA – Georgia

** Home to 200,000 people, Abkhazia is sandwiched between the Black
Sea and the Caucasus mountains and was once a renowned tourist
destination. It fought a 1992-3 war against Georgia and effectively
rules itself. It was isolated for years after the war but has since
forged closer ties with Russia, which has given Abkhaz residents
passports and pensions. South Ossetia fought to throw off Georgian
rule in the early 1990s. A ceasefire was signed but the violence has
threatened to reignite. Russia has peacekeepers in both regions.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH – Azerbaijan

** Sporadic clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh between Azeri and local ethnic
Armenian irregulars began in 1998, escalating by 1992 into full-scale
hostilities between Azeri forces and troops from Armenia.

About 35,000 people died and hundreds of thousands fled before a
ceasefire was signed in 1994. The territory remains part of Azerbaijan
but is controlled by Armenian forces. A major BP-led pipeline linking
Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea oil fields to world markets passes a few
kilometres from the conflict zone.

PAPUA – Indonesia

** In the remote eastern Papua province, activists have led a
campaign for more than 30 years to break away from Indonesia, while a
low-level armed rebellion has been rumbling for decades. Critics say
military abuses and dissatisfaction over Jakarta’s distribution of
wealth generated by the mineral- and gas-rich province has fuelled
grievances. A 30-year insurgency in Aceh province, killing 15,000
people, ended in a European Union-monitored peace accord in 2005.

BASQUE COUNTRY – Spain

** Basque separatist movement ETA has spent the past four decades
fighting for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and
southwestern France, killing more than 800 people. The semi-autonomous
Basque region in northern Spain is home to 2.1 million people. More
than 750 suspected members have been detained since 2000. ETA declared
a ceasefire last year, but the Spanish government scrapped peace talks
in December 2006 after ETA bombed Madrid airport, killing two people.

THE KURDS – Turkey/Iraq/Syria/Iran

** Around 20 million Kurds are scattered between northern Iraq, Syria,
Iran and Turkey, describing themselves as the world’s largest stateless
minority. Most live in southeastern Turkey, where Kurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK) guerrillas have fought an insurgency since 1984 in which
more than 30,000 people have died. A ceasefire was called in 1999,
but fighting resumed in 2004. Turkey fears that Kurds in northern
Iraq plan to establish their own state, which would stir tensions
among Turkish Kurds.

WESTERN SAHARA – Morocco

** The Polisario movement of Western Sahara fought a low-level war
for independence after Morocco annexed the desert territory with the
pullout of colonial power Spain in 1975. U.N. troops have monitored
an uneasy peace since 1991. It is Africa’s oldest territorial dispute,
over land the size of Britain, inhabited by 260,000 people.

A U.N. ceasefire agreement in 1991 promised a referendum on the fate
of the territory, but it never took place and Morocco now rules it out,
saying autonomy is the most it will offer.