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Global Recon
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August 19, 2004
Georgia & South Ossetia On The Brink
Georgian President Mikheil Saakasvhili is offering the separatist South Ossetian government (alleged to be a Russian-armed proxy) a final chance for peace.
“That is why we offer that 500 Georgian peacekeepers, which are the part of joint peacekeeping troops, will be stationed in the Georgian villages. All other extra troops, which we have dispatched in the region after the deterioration of situation there, will be pulled out,” President Saakashvili said.

“We want to use every chance to solve the crisis peacefully. But this will be the last chance for peace,” Saakashvili added.

He said that Georgian Defense Minister Giorgi Baramidze, together with the Georgian peacekeepers deployed in the conflict zone, will be in charge of ensuring security of the Georgian villages.

He said that Georgian is ready to undertake “even the toughest measures, but these measures will be provoked only by the separatists.”

“I want to tell the Georgian people that we cannot lose in case a large-scale military confrontation is launched… Georgia has succeeded in its state-building process recently, but our enemies are unhappy about this and try to engage us in war. I am not afraid of this, but we cannot lose again,” Mikheil Saakashvili said.
Seemingly a small, regional conflict, the outcome of the situation stands a strong chance of shaping for years to come not only how Russia interacts with its neighbors but how the United States and Russia will or will not cooperate in Central Asia & the Caucasus.

Posted by Nathan Hamm at August 19, 2004 01:37 PM | TrackBack
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