Moscow, Nov 23: Leaders of Georgia's breakaway Republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia kept a close eye on the turmoil boiling in Tbilisi, the two regions' top officials said. "Abkhaz and Ossetian sides are concerned over the situation in Georgia, which may destabilise the entire Caucasus," south Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity said late yesterday after telephone talks with Abkhaz Prime Minister Raul Khadzhimba.
"We watch what is happening in Georgia very closely, because we already have a sad experience of an unstable situation in georgia leading to aggression, in 1992," Abkhaz foreign minister Sergei Shamba said early today as quoted by Ria-Novosti.
Georgian troops fought an unsuccessful year-long war against Abkhaz rebels who declared independence from Tbilisi in 1992, and a Russian buffer force has been deployed in the breakaway region with Georgian consent since 1994.
"We must consider all outcomes, though we hope the situation improves and that they will overcome this conflict," Shamba added.
The conflict between Georgia and Abkhazia, which lies between the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea, left several thousand people dead and sparked an exodus of 250,000 Georgians from the region.
Tbilisi lost control of pro-Russian south Ossetia when the Soviet Union- to which Georgia once belonged- collapsed in 1991. Bureau Report