RUSSIA: PRIME MINISTER OF GEORGIAN REBEL ABKHARIA REGION WARNS NEW LEADERS TO STAY AWAY

Record ID: 208415

  • Title: RUSSIA: PRIME MINISTER OF GEORGIAN REBEL ABKHARIA REGION WARNS NEW LEADERS TO STAY AWAY
  • Date: 29th November 2003
  • Summary: (U4)MOSCOW, RUSSIA (NOVEMBER 29, 2003)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF ABKHAZIAN PRIME MINISTER, RAUL KHADZIMBA ENTERING PRESS CONFERENCE 0.08 2. SLV CAMERA OPERATORS LISTENING 0.15 3. WIDE OF KHADZIMBA AT CONFERENCE 0.19 4. WIDE OF JOURNALISTS LISTENING 0.24 5. SCU (SOUNDBITE)(Russian) ABKHAZIAN PRIME MINISTER, RAUL KHADZIMBA, SAYING: "If needed, from the very first day we could call up enough troops to defend ourselves." 0.35 6. VARIOUS OF PRESS CONFERENCE 0.47 7. SCU (SOUNDBITE)(Russian) KHADZIMBA, SAYING: "We have sufficient force to defend ourselves." 0.51 8. WIDE OF PRESS HALL 0.57 (U4) SUKHUMI, ABKHAZIA, GEORGIA (FILE - JUNE 1992)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 9. VARIOUS OF FIGHTING BETWEEN GEORGIAN AND ABKHAZIAN TROOPS/ TROOPS FIRING GUNS INTO HILLSIDE 1.17 10. WIDE OF APARTMENT BLOCK WITH SOLDIERS 1.21 11. VARIOUS OF TANK AND MILITARY VEHICLES ALONG ROAD 1.34 12. SLV TANK MANOEUVRING NEAR BUILDING 1.41 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 14th December 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA AND SUKHUMI, ABKHAZIA, GEORGIA
  • Country: Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVA8KOFH146AXL9DV96QN7SCYILM
  • Story Text: The Prime Minister of a Georgian rebel region warns
    new national leaders to stay away.




    The head of separatist Georgian region Abkhazia said
    on Saturday (November 29), he and leaders of other Georgian
    autonomous areas would meet to form a strategy against any
    move by the ex-Soviet state's new leaders to regain lost
    territory.

    A new interim government has come to power in Georgia,
    a nation of about 5 million, after weeks of street protests
    led to the resignation of veteran president Eduard
    Shevardnadze.

    A main figure in the new government, Mikhail
    Saakashvili, the hot favourite to win presidential
    elections on January 04, is accused by regional leaders of
    contemplating restoring control, possibly through use of
    force, over territories outside of Tbilisi's control.

    Raul Khadzimba, prime minister of Abkhazia, a lush
    Black Sea region that broke away from Tbilisi's control in
    1993 after a 13-month war in which 10,000 people died,
    warned the new government against a use of force.

    "If needed, from the very first day we could call up
    enough troops to defend ourselves," Khadzimba told a news
    conference.

    About 300,000 people live in Abkhazia and the
    government says that approximately 30 percent of the
    population holds Russian citizenship.

    Khadzimba made his remarks in Moscow, where he had met
    with Russian officials and leaders of other autonomous
    regions in Georgia such as South Ossetia and Adzhara.

    South Ossetia has said it wants to secede from Georgia
    and join neighbouring Russia. Adhzara has never said it
    wants to leave Georgia but its leader is deeply
    antagonistic to Georgia's new government.

    Western states that see Georgia as a key transit
    country for a planned pipeline to bring Caspian oil to the
    Mediterranean are watching events there closely, mindful of
    a chaotic civil war that gripped the country in the 1990s.

    Russia, with two military bases in Georgia, also sees
    strategic interests there.




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