Sokhumi Accuses Saakashvili of Inciting ‘Ethnic Hatred’

Authorities in breakaway Abkhazia accused President Saakashvili of widening divisions between Abkhazians and Georgians by disseminating false information, the Abkhaz news agency, Apsnipress, reported on May 25.

President Saakashvili alleged on May 24 that Georgian textbooks from all the schools in the Abkhaz town of Gagra had been “publicly burned.” Saakashvili complained that the international community had remained silent on the incident.

“Allegation of this kind are an immoral attempt to manipulate universal humanitarian values so as to increase xenophobia and ethnic hatred between the Georgian and Abkhaz societies,” a statement issued by the Abkhaz Foreign Ministry on May 25 reads.

“The president of the country – whose armed forces deliberately burned down the Abkhaz State Archives and Abkhaz scientific and research institute of history; destroyed and stole unique historic publications and artifacts, proving the multi-century history of Abkhazia – has demonstrated once again an ignorance of the real situation in Abkhazia.”

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