Word: abkhazians
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...came to power were democratically inclined, but they came off the street. They destroyed everything because it had been built by Communists -- factories, railroads and hydroelectric plants. But the situation is better today than it was yesterday or a year or two ago. People are still hungry. The Abkhazian issue has not been resolved. But it's much quieter now. There is a greater understanding that we have to build this country with our hands -- certainly with the help of our friends, but mostly by ourselves. No miracles will occur. It's only by work and struggle that...
Recent events in Georgia provide a textbook case of this strategy. The devastating defeat that Abkhazian rebels dealt to Georgian troops in September would have been impossible without support from Russia's army. Subsequently, the Georgian leader, Eduard Shevardnadze, was forced to beg Yeltsin for membership in the C.I.S. The endgame is obvious: a bilateral treaty providing Russia's military with permanent bases in Georgia, including control over its strategic Black Sea coast...
...Georgia promised to join the Commonwealth of Independent States, dominated by Russia, Moscow agreed to send troops to defend a vital railway in the western part of the republic, where fighting between rebels and government forces persists. Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze has accused the Russian military of helping the Abkhazian separatists...
...Abkhazian drive succeeds, it could mark the beginning of the ultimate dismemberment of Georgia as other ethnic minorities, bent on fulfilling their own dreams of independence, followed suit. Equally menacing to stability, an Abkhazian victory would demolish Shevardnadze's credibility as the only leader capable of holding the country together. That danger prompted him to issue a televised call to arms, appealing "to all men with guns to go to defend Sukhumi." Together with his physician, cook and the rest of his personal staff, Shevardnadze headed for the embattled city, pledging to remain with the defenders "until the last drop...
...soldiers on the tarmac push the hysterical crowds back with rifle butts, Abkhazian gunners train their fire on the runway. Those who do manage to clamber into an outbound plane discover that they have boarded a flying morgue. The backs of seats are pushed forward to accommodate stretchers bearing soldiers too critically injured to survive the 35-minute flight to Tbilisi. What little space remains is packed with refugees who even wedge themselves into the toilets, indifferent to the stench. The situation is horrific, but now that the Abkhazian artillery has made evacuation by sea impossible, the only remaining exit...