Georgian president asks EU for help; Abkhazia claims to shoot down unmanned Georgian planes
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TBILISI, Georgia: Georgia's president urged the European Union on Monday to help protect his nation's territorial integrity, which he said is being threatened by Russia.
After meeting foreign ministers from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia and Sweden, President Mikhail Saakashvili said Georgia expects the EU to help settle conflicts in its breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
"The future of Europe is at stake," Saakashvili said.
He also told reporters that the EU's involvement in settling the conflicts would help Georgia's integration into Europe.
The statements come amid a sharp escalation of tension over Abkhazia, which has run its own affairs since a separatist war in the early 1990s, developing close ties with Russia.
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Abkhazian authorities said Monday it had shot down two unmanned Georgian spy planes over its territory — the latest in a series of such claims denied by the Georgian government.
Georgia acknowledges that one pilotless reconnaissance plane was shot down over Abkhazia last month. But it contends the drone was taken out by a Russian warplane, not Abkhazian forces.
Since then, Abkhazia has claimed to have shot down at least five other such planes.
Abkhazia alleges that Georgia is preparing to try to retake the region by force. It claims there has been a significant increase in Georgian forces in the upper Kodori Gorge region, the only section of Abkhazia under Georgian control.
In response to Abkhazia's claims of Georgian aggression, Russia has increased its contingent of peacekeeping troops in Abkhazia.
Georgian officials interpret that increase as veiled aggression, saying the peacekeepers support Abkhazia's separatists.
"Russian peacekeepers aren't a legitimate part of the process," Saakashvili said. "Russian officials violate all known norms of international law."
On Monday, Abkhazian separatist foreign minister Sergei Shamba said a pilotless drone was shot down over the Gali district, near the southern administrative border with Georgia, in the afternoon. About an hour later, the presidential envoy to the district, Ruslan Kishmaria, said a second plane had been downed.
Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili denied both claims.
Russia does not formally recognize the government of Abkhazia, but it has granted Russian passports to most of the territory's residents. And it called last month for closer ties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, another separatist Georgian republic.
The tensions have sparked concern in the West, which wants to integrate Georgia more closely into Europe but also seeks to improve relations with Russia.
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza, a top Washington envoy for the Caucasus, traveled to the Abkhazian capital, Sukhumi, over the weekend to try to quell tensions.
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Correspondent Ruslan Khashig contributed to this report from Sukhumi.
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