Issue #1354 (18), Friday, March 7, 2008

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Breakaway Regions Push For Independence, Citing Kosovo

The Associated Press

SUKHUMI, Georgia — Abkhazia, a region that broke away from Georgian government control in the 1990s, intends to seek international recognition as an independent nation, citing Kosovo as a precedent, a lawmaker said Thursday.

Another breakaway region, South Ossetia appealed on Wednesday for similar recognition, adding to simmering tensions in Georgia and throughout the strategic South Caucasus region.

Guram Gumba, head of the legislature’s foreign affairs committee, said Abkhazia’s legislature will pass a resolution Friday asking the world “to recognize our independence and to establish official relations.”

“Kosovo is in fact a precedent for all unrecognized states,” he said.

Since Kosovo’s declaration of independence last month, Russian and other officials have warned that it could fuel other separatist movements around the world. Nations that recognize Kosovo’s independence from Serbia say its situation was unique.

South Ossetia’s legislature passed a resolution Wednesday that appealed to the United Nations, the European Union, Russia, and a loose grouping of former Soviet republics: “The 17-year period of South Ossetia’s independent existence confirms the viability of the republic and demands that its sovereignty be legitimized in accordance with the U.N. Charter.”

Both South Ossetia and Abkhazia have had de-facto independence since the wars of the 1990s. No country recognizes the two region’s governments, though Russia has tacitly supported their autonomy — granting their citizens Russian passports, maintaining trade ties and stationing peacekeepers there.

Georgia’s president, Mikhail Saakashvili, has vowed to restore government control over both regions, and sporadic violence occasionally breaks out between separatist forces and Georgia-backed militias. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the Kosovo declaration was “a terrifying precedent,” and warned the West that the decision would “come back to knock them on the head.”