Abkhaz, S.Ossetian Leaders Reject Saakashvili’s Proposals

Leaders of breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Sergey Bagapsh and Eduard Kokoity, respectively, have both rejected President Saakashvili’s proposal to build a unified state.

“The co-existence of Abkhazia and Georgia in a uniform state is impossible,” Bagapsh told Interfax news agency.

“We have already been in the Georgian state and our people have numerously been subjected to genocide. The Ossetian people have made a choice in favor of an independent state and we, the leadership of the republic, will not change this course,” Kokoity told Interfax.

President Saakashvili made a televised appeal to residents of the two breakaway regions and told them to join forces to resists external “outrageous and irresponsible force.” He described de factor authorities of the breakaway regions as “separatists, criminal and corrupt groups.”

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