ZHUKOVKA, Russia (AP) - Russia's foreign minister on Friday called for an internationally developed "road map" to resolve the hot tensions over separatist Abkhazia, but raised serious objections to a plan devised by major countries. Sergey Lavrov's comments underlined the deep divisions in the dispute, which many have feared will boil into war. Lavrov met Friday with German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is pushing the three-step plan that was rejected by Abkhazia's president earlier in the day.Abkhazia split from Georgia in a separatist war in the 1990s and its status has since been in stasis. This year, however, Russia and Abkhazia have alleged Georgia was preparing to retake the region by force, while Georgia claimed Russia intended to annex it.
| Georgians should let it go. The Abkhazians don't want to be part of them. |
An unmanned Georgian spy plane was shot down over Abkhazia and U.N. investigators blamed Russia, a charge that Moscow denies. A series of bomb explosions in and near Abkhazia this month further raised tensions, with each side accusing the other of provocations.
"The escalation over the past days and weeks, in which there have been victims, obliges the sides to find a way out of the spiraling violence," Steinmeier said after meeting Lavrov in a Moscow suburb.
Before visiting Russia, Steinmeier made stops in Georgia and Abkhazia to promote the plan, which was developed by the so-called U.N. Secretary-General's Group of Friends of Georgia - which includes Germany, Britain, France, the United States and Russia. "We should intensify our cooperation in the framework of the Group of Friends and the United Nations to form such a three-stage road map ... that will allow us to persuade the sides to start negotiation as soon as possible," Lavrov said.
But he said the plan brought by Steinmeier was flawed because it called for the return of Georgian refugees as part of the first phase instead of at the end of the process. Both Lavrov and Abkhazian separatist president Sergei Bagapsh said a first step must be Georgia withdrawing troops from the disputed Kodori Gorge. Abkhazian and Russian officials have said they believe Georgia intends to launch an offensive from there to retake Abkhazia.
Steinmeier also met Friday with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who "underlined that the only way out of the current situation is the acceptance of a joint document with obligation to not use force and guaranteeing security and the withdrawal of Georgian forces from the upper part of the Kodori Gorge," according to a Kremlin statement.
The Steinmeier plan also calls for negotiations to determine Abkhazia's final status, but Bagapsh insisted Abkhazia's status is not open to question. "Abkhazia is an independent republic, and this point is not subject to any negotiations," he said after the meeting at a U.N. mission office in Gali, a town in Abkhazia. Abkhazia's claim of independence is not recognized by any nation or international organization.