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Russian general calls for peaceful solution of conflict in Georgia

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  • Russian general calls for peaceful solution of conflict in Georgia

    ITAR-TASS News Agency
    TASS
    March 17, 2004

    Russian general calls for peaceful solution of conflict in Georgia

    By Anatoly Yurkin

    MOSCOW, March 17

    General Igor Rodionov, a Russian State Duma deputy, told Itar-Tass on
    Wednesday that Georgia and Ajaria should solve their conflict
    exclusively by peaceful means. Rodionov used to command the troops of
    the trans-Caucasian military district in the 1980s. He believes that
    Ajaria's geographic location and multi-ethnic population totally
    rules out the use of force as a means to solve disputes in this part
    of the trans-Caucasian region.

    "The specific features of waging military hostilities in highland and
    woodland areas enable a defending side to deter considerable forces
    that are on the offensive by conventional means," Rodionov
    emphasized.

    "Besides, the Armenians and Azerbaijanians residing in this territory
    may exploit the current situation to announce their right to an
    autonomy. Bloody events, which may lead to more human casualties than
    the conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, can repeat," the general
    went on to say.

    Asked to comment on the causes of the current conflict between
    Tbilisi and Batumi, Rodionov replied that nationalist extremist
    forces, which caused the tragic events early in the April of 1989,
    were rearing their heads in Georgia again. It was then that slogans
    for making Georgia a home only for the Georgians and demands to
    liquidate autonomous republics in the Georgian territory appeared for
    the first time. "Therefore, the sides should sit down to talks and
    try to settle the conflict with Russia's help," Rodionov emphasized.

    In the meantime, Russian State Duma deputies have also expressed
    their concern with the recent developments in the trans-Caucasian
    region. The deputies told Itar-Tass on Wednesday that peaceful means
    should be found to settle the crisis in relations between Tbilisi and
    Batumi.

    Lyubov Sliska, the first vice-speaker of the Russian State Duma,
    backed up Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's peace mission to Ajaria which
    diverts the sides from the armed conflict. "The purpose of his visit
    to Ajaria is to promote normal diplomatic settlement of this
    conflict," Sliska stressed.

    "Russia is the guarantor of Ajaria's autonomy under the state
    treaties which were signed in Moscow in 1921," Konstantin Zatulin, a
    member of the CIS Committee for the CIS affairs and ties with
    compatriots," said. The Russian State Duma deputies and Moscow Mayor
    Yuri Luzhkov who are currently staying in Ajaria have produced
    positive results because it delayed the use of force against the
    Ajarian autonomy.

    Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of
    Russia (LDPR), told Itar-Tass on Wednesday that Zhirinovsky had sent
    a telegram to Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili with a request
    to refrain from the use of force against Ajaria and to lift the siege
    against the autonomy.
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