Saakashvili Hails Students for Anti-Separatist Protests

President Saakashvili said on March 4 that the Abkhaz separatists? expectations have been frustrated, as Georgia?s new generation has not forgotten Abkhazia.

Speaking at the construction site of a new military base near the town of Gori, Saakashvili said that ?400-500 thousand people were expelled? from Abkhazia in early 90s with the hope that after many years no one would want to return.

?Time has gone by since then, but now we have a generation that will never again let anyone to oppress them,? Saakashvili said.

He hailed rallies that were held by a group of Georgian students in different towns of Georgia on March 3 to protest against the March 4 parliamentary elections. The students were also protesting the arrest of three Georgian activists by the Abkhaz militia on March 1.

Saakashvili said that this is a generation that is also capable of reconciliation.

?But we are ready for reconciliation not from the position of a weak, but from the position of a strong Georgia,? he said.

?The road towards Roki [in breakaway South Ossetia] and towards the Psou [River in breakaway Abkhazia] lies through strong people and not through those who are suffering with the syndrome of weakness; it makes me sick when I see these people talking on television,? he added.

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