Abkhaz officials told visiting scholars from the Washington-based think-tank, Atlantic Council of the United States (ACUS), that Tbilisi’s “forceful policy” meant Sokhumi had to prepare for possible military hostilities, Abkhaz news agency, Apsnipress, reported.
Stanislav Lakoba, secretary of the Abkhaz National Security Council, said at a meeting on June 16 that public anticipation of war in Abkhazia had not existed before Mikheil Saakashvili’s assumption of power in 2004.
“Saakashvili’s policy is built on threats and the necessity of resolving the Abkhaz issue through the use of force,” he said. “Year after year this type of policy has triggered the Abkhazians to readjust our military stance. Today there is a sense of concern that war is inevitable and psychologically we are ready for it.”
Merab Kishmaria, the defense minister of the breakaway region, told pundits from ACUS that the resumption of hostilities was a “real” possibility, as Tbilisi was refusing to sign a treaty on the non-use of force, Apsnipress reported. “The Abkhaz armed forces are ready to repel any kind of Georgian aggression,” he added.
The ACUS scholars visited Sokhumi as part of the think-tank’s “special initiative” to assess conflict conditions in Abkhazia. The initiative, announced by the group in April, aims at, as ACUS puts it, examining the efforts of the UN and the international community to resolve this conflict, along with the impact of Russia’s decision to establish legal links with Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The director of the project is David L. Phillips, a senior fellow with ACUS and a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University. He was among those who visited Sokhumi on June 16.
ACUS said that the findings and recommendations elaborated in the frames of the project would be finalized by September 2008.
