Abkhaz Leader Presents Hard-Line Stance

Abkhaz leader Sergey Bagapsh said on June 5 that Sokhumi’s position the resumption of talks with Tbilisi remained unchanged.

Bagapsh’s reiteration of Sokhumi’s position came ahead of talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who will be in Sokhumi on June 6, and after criticism leveled by an influential Abkhaz group against Sokhumi’s foreign policy.

“Although such a high ranking European official [Solana] will be visiting Abkhazia, we are not going to change our position on the resumption of talks,” Abkhaz news agency Apsnipress quoted Bagapsh as saying. “I want to reiterate once again: the major condition for resuming talks is the withdrawal of all Georgian military units from upper Kodori Gorge… and the signing of an agreement on the non-resumption of hostilities by Georgia.”

Georgia says it has only police forces in upper Kodori Gorge – the only part of breakaway Abkhazia under Tbilisi control. Temur Iakobashvili, the Georgian state minister for reintegration, said recently that Tbilisi would not sign a treaty on the non-use of force until internally displaced persons and refugees were allowed to return to Abkhazia.

Bagapsh also reiterated Sokhumi’s position on Russian peacekeeping forces, saying that the current format had “no alternative.”

“The issue of their [Russian peacekeepers’] replacement will not even be discussed with anyone,” Bagapsh said.

Solana said in Tbilisi on June 5 that Tbilisi’s desire to replace the Russian-led peacekeeping operation in Abkhazia with an international police force was discussed with the Georgian leadership. He, however, stressed that the lowering of tension was the main priority for the moment.

Meanwhile, Abkhaz foreign policy came under fire from Aruaa, an influential organization uniting veterans of the armed conflict of the early 1990s.

The organization, which held a congress this week in Sokhumi, said on June 4 that the Abkhaz authorities’ “multi-vector foreign policy” was undermining Sokhumi’s vital interest in having closer ties with Moscow.

Vadim Smir, deputy chairman of the group, said at the congress that Sokhumi should take a tough line not only towards Tbilisi, but also towards its western allies.

“Despite the commitment not to hold talks, the Abkhaz authorities are receiving Georgia’s UN envoy, Irakli Alasania; are holding talks with the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Mathew Bryza; ambassadors from EU-member states and now it is ready to meet with the EU’s Javier Solana,” Apsnipress quoted Smir as saying at the Aruaa congress. “Only strong ties with Russia can provide a firm guarantee of our independence.”

Sergei Shamba, the foreign minister of the breakaway region, however, said the organization’s criticism was groundless. “We have never made any statement that would question our sincere intention to have special relations with Russia,” Shamba said. “We are strongly against any change in the existing negotiating and peacekeeping formats.”

Recent week has seen increased western diplomatic efforts to defuse tension. EU Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner was in Moscow this week and Georgia was high on the agenda. U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Mathew Bryza also visited Moscow this week and, among other things, discussed Georgia with Russian officials.

President Saakashvili departs for St. Petersburg on June 6 where he will meet his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, on the sidelines of an informal summit of CIS leaders and an economic forum.

The momentum is set to continue next week when U.S. President George W. Bush starts a European trip. Stephen Hadley, the U.S. national security adviser, said Georgia would be on the agenda of the U.S.-EU summit in Slovenia.