Reuters
FACTBOX-Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia region
Sun Aug 10, 2008 6:38am EDT
Aug 10 (Reuters) – Georgia’s separatist province of Abkhazia sent
1,000 troops to a disputed gorge on Sunday, effectively opening a
"second front" in Tbilisi’s battle to regain control over its
breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Georgia sees their return as a top national priority.
Here are some facts about Abkhazia:
HISTORY:
* A Black Sea region bordering Russia, Abkhazia was once the favourite
holiday destination of the Soviet Union’s elite. It accounts for about
half of Georgia’s coastline.
* Abkhazia is internationally recognised as part of Georgia but it has
declared itself an independent state. It fought a war in the early
1990s to drive out Tbilisi’s forces. The conflict killed an estimated
10,000 people and forced hundreds of thousands to leave their homes.
* Georgia says just under 250,000 people — most of them ethnic
Georgians — were driven out by the conflict and are now registered as
internally displaced. Abkhazia’s separatist authorities dispute this,
saying there are no more than 160,000 internally displaced people.
BUILD-UP TO CONFLICT:
* On coming to power in January 2004 after a bloodless revolution,
pro-Western Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili vowed to make
reuniting the country his top priority.
* On April 16, 2008, then Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his
government to intensify ties with Abkhazia and Ossetia, a second
Georgian breakaway territory. Tbilisi said the move amounted to a
"creeping annexation" of its land by Moscow.
* Russia can deploy up to 3,000 peacekeeping troops in Abkhazia under
a 1994 ceasefire agreement. Tbilisi complains the Russian troops are
effectively propping up the separatists. Moscow says they are all that
is preventing more bloodshed.
* Early in May, Russia sent extra troops to counter what it said was a
Georgian plan to attack Abkhazia, though Tbilisi denied any such
intention. Observers say Russia’s contingent remains within the 3,000
limit. They say Russia for the first time re-enforced its troops with
tracked armoured personnel carriers equipped with cannon.
* A May 26 U.N. report said a Russian air force jet had shot down a
Georgian unmanned spy plane over Abkhazia on April 20. Russia denied
involvement, saying the Georgian plane was shot down by a separatist
anti-aircraft missile. The separatists say they have shot down seven
Georgian spy drones so far in 2008.
* Saakashvili proposed a peace deal under which South Ossetia and
Abkhazia would be given "a large degree of autonomy" within a federal
state. The separatists have said they will settle for nothing less
than full independence.
THE PEOPLE:
* Abkhazia’s separatist administration says the region’s population is
340,000. Tbilisi says that is artificially inflated.
* The Abkhaz people are ethnically distinct from Georgians. They say
they were forcibly absorbed into Georgia under Soviet rule and now
want to exercise their right to self-determination.
* According to the International Crisis Group think tank, a Soviet
census in 1989 showed ethnic Abkhaz accounted for 18 percent of the
region’s population, ethnic Georgians 45 percent and other groups,
mostly Russians and Armenians, the rest.
* Starting in the late 1990s, some ethnic Georgians began returning to
their homes in Abkhazia’s Gali district, near the de facto border with
Georgia. About 50,000 people have returned to the district.
* Separatist officials say over 80 percent of residents in Abkhazia
have been issued with Russian passports. Russia’s government pays
pensions to Abkhaz retirees.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
