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Georgia still plans to solve Abkhazia problem by force - Bagapsh

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Georgia has not given up its plans to resolve the conflict with Abkhazia by force, the president of the self-proclaimed republic said Thursday.
MOSCOW, January 25 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia has not given up its plans to resolve the conflict with Abkhazia by force, the president of the self-proclaimed republic said Thursday.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said earlier that "it is time for Georgia's complete reunion by means of returning [the self-proclaimed republics of] Abkhazia and South Ossetia."

Sergei Bagapsh told RIA Novosti: "We have always told the international community that Georgia is a military oriented state. Georgia is an aggressor. Their only purpose is to resolve the problem of territorial integrity by force."

Bagapsh said that if Saakashvili takes that path, he will destroy his own country. He said that since Georgia refuses to stop its provocations, all Abkhazian forces have been put on alert.

"We will take all measures to prevent the worst scenario," the Abkhazian leader added. He said the situation was very serious, not only for Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but also for the Caucasus as a whole.

He said Saakashvili only begins uttering threats when his popularity rating is falling, and that his statements on democracy are meant only for the international community.

Bagapsh said he hopes that Georgia still has reasonable people who "understand that a military scenario is unacceptable to all sides."

Abkhazia broke away from Georgian government control in a bloody war in the early 1990s. Some 7,000 civilians of various ethnicities were killed in the war, according to official Georgian sources.

Abkhazia claimed that several thousand people died fighting for the region's independence, and that hundreds of thousands were displaced.

Saakashvili, who swept into power on the back of a "color" revolution in 2003, has pledged to bring Abkhazia and South Ossetia back under Tbilisi's control.

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