Former Soviet territory has hope for recognition

SUKHUM, Abkhazia -- At first glance the tiny self-declared republic of Abkhazia on the eastern coast of the Black Sea is an earthly paradise. For decades its palm trees, warm scented air, and long beaches drew thousands of holidaymakers from across the Soviet Union. Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev relaxed on its shores.

Even today, it is famed for its gentle climate, its mandarin oranges, and its sweeping boughs of yellow mimosa blossom. But look closer, and there are signs of an uglier past.

Side streets in the seaside capital, Sukhum, are dominated by the gutted remains of smoke-blackened houses, choked with weeds. In the countryside not far away, whole settlements stand in silent desolation, abandoned in a furious war that raged here in the Caucasus more than a decade ago.

The conflict flared up in August 1992 when the armed forces of Georgia attacked Abkhazia, a region within Georgia's territory that had declared its intent to break away from the country after the Soviet collapse. Since 1931, when Stalin began a forced colonization of the region by Georgians, Abkhazians had nursed a desire to wrest back total control of the territory.

In late 1993, after a year of fighting and atrocities on both sides, the Abkhazians drove out their enemies -- including thousands of Georgian civilians who were by then a majority of the population -- and declared independence.

Ever since, this scrap of land, home to about 200,000 people, has led a lonely existence, cut off by an embargo and unrecognized by any country in the world.

''In the last 13 years, Abkhazia has formed a state with its own institutions, authorities, army, and democratic development," said its de facto president, Sergei Bagapsh, in an interview at his offices in downtown Sukhum. ''But the world ignores us when we have every right to gain international recognition."

Despite its frustration, Abkhazia is one of a posse of unrecognized former Soviet territories that are now champing at the bit because of a far-off event in the heart of Europe.

Last month, face-to-face talks between delegations from Kosovo and Serbia finally began in Vienna. The UN-brokered negotiations will decide the future of Kosovo, the ethnic Albanian province of Serbia that has been under UN protection since NATO air strikes forced Serb troops out in 1999.

European diplomats indicate that Kosovo has a chance to gain full independence and recognition by the international community later this year.

That suggestion has prompted a wave of hope for similar recognition in self-declared territories like Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Georgia's other breakaway region, as well as the republic of Trans-Dniester in Moldova, and the disputed district of Nagorno Karabakh, an Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan.

Bagapsh predicted Abkhazia's independence will be recognized ''within three days" if Kosovo is granted status as a country.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia threw his weight behind Abkhazia's cause at the end of January when he said Kosovan independence would set a precedent.

''We need universal principles to find a fair solution to these problems," Putin said in his annual news conference. ''If people believe that Kosovo can be granted full independence, why then should we deny it to Abkhazia and South Ossetia?" he asked.

Russia's support for the Abkhazians, an ethnic group that believes God entrusted their territory to them for protection, has been key. Moscow, keen to keep neighboring Georgia weak and hoping to slow the region's drift toward the West, supported the Abkhazians in the 1992-1993 war with weapons and air strikes. Thousands of irregulars from Abkhazia's ''brother nations" in the Russian North Caucasus republics -- including Chechens and Cossacks -- also streamed across the border to fight Georgia.

But Abkhazia's victory came at a price. Georgia accused it of ethnic cleansing and severed all trade. Many buildings were destroyed, and the republic is desperately poor. Sukhum has no functioning airport, receives little direct bilateral aid, and its coast is cut off by Georgian ships. Its critics say it is a haven for organized crime, which is hard to verify. And its only link is with Russia, which buys its oranges and sends a trickle of tourists to the republic's crumbling resorts.

UN-led talks between Georgia and Abkhazia have borne little fruit since the end of the armed conflict.

But Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba of Abkhazia said there is hope that independence for Kosovo will set a vital benchmark that could alter the course of his stranded republic.

''The international community needs to face up to the fact that obstacles put in front of people and their aspirations to self-determination only lead to bloodshed," he said. ''In that sense, Kosovo could become a kind of marker that determines a new world attitude towards these issues."

At Shamba's cramped three-room foreign ministry, officials are following every squeak and whisper of the Kosovo negotiations, which are due to resume today.

Developments in Serbia are complicated by an increasingly fragile local situation. Georgia is fed up with what it perceives as Moscow's meddling in its internal affairs, and the parliament in Tbilisi, the capital, is gearing up for a vote in July, when it is expected to demand the withdrawal of Russian peacekeeping forces that separate Georgian and Abkhaz troops along the cease-fire line.

While any parliamentary vote will not be binding, President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia is facing growing pressure from nationalists to rein in his rebellious breakaway republics and rid the country of foreign interference.

The country's military budget is rising rapidly, with the United States providing vital training and equipment.

Officially, the United States is neutral in the conflict, but representatives of the Abkhazian foreign ministry who returned last month from a USAID-funded trip to Washington said administration officials urged them to accept broad autonomy within Georgia rather than push for independent status.

Viktor Tvanba, an Abkhaz veteran of the 1992 conflict who lives in Sukhum, said the withdrawal of Russian troops would lead to a region-wide conflagration.

''The Georgians will surely attack us and then we'll unleash such a furious response that we'll drive them all the way back to Tbilisi," the 56-year-old said. ''Any less would be an insult to our dead relatives."

As in Kosovo, every call to arms is accompanied by claims to historical precedence on the territory, which are disputed by historians on both sides.

The fate of the southern Gali region of Abkhazia where Georgians dominate remains a major sticking point.

Interethnic strife has led to scores of deaths in the area since the war, and most refugees who fled during the conflict have been prevented from returning to claim their property and livelihoods.