As Georgia Says Sochi Olympics May
Not Happen, Russia Calls it Far-Fetched, Of Abkhaz Trenches
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, March 11 -- "I
won't see any Sochi Olympics happening," Georgia's Permanent
Representative to the UN Irakli Alasania told Inner City Press on
Tuesday, "if destabilization in region" continues. Ambassador Alasania
had criticized Russia's lifting of sanctions against Abkhazia, a move
that some have related to the Winter Olympics planned for 2014 in Sochi,
fifty miles from
Abkhazia.
Inner City Press asked Amb. Alasania about a quote by the chairman of
the Georgian parliament temporary commission for the restoration of
territorial integrity, Shota Malashkhia, that "if Russia continues to
act in the same manner as currently, the Sochi Olympics will resemble
that in Moscow in 1980."
While declining to comment directly on the statements of the legislative
branch, Amb. Alasania went beyond the implicit boycott call to say that
the Olympics might have to be cancelled altogether. If the
destabilization on the ground continues, he said, "I don't see how the
Olympics can proceed." Video
here,
from Minute 12:47.
Inner City Press asked
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad about the Georgian statement
that the Sochi Olympics might have to be cancelled. U.S. entertainer Mia
Farrow has called for a boycott, citing Darfur, of the upcoming Beijing
Olympics; filmmaker Steven Spielberg himself boycotted participation in
the Games. After initially declining to say anything, Amb. Khalilzad
when pressed said "I have no comment on that... with regards to the
Olympics issues." Video
here,
from Minute 5:54
Afterwards another
Council diplomat told Inner City Press that the idea of boycotting the
Sochi Olympics due to a dispute about Abkhazia or South Ossetia was
"reminiscent of the Cold War." But there are those who say a new Cold
War is brewing.
Russia beat out South
Korea to win the 2014 Winter Olympics. Inner City Press asked Russian
Ambassador Vitaly Churkin about Amb. Alasania's statement that the Games
might have to be cancelled. Amb. Churkin laughed and called it "a
far-fetched statement... I'm surprised that he made it." Video
here,
from Minute 4:09. Then again, Russia claims that its lifting of
sanctions on Abkhazia has nothing to do with other countries'
recognition of Kosovo's declaration of independence.
Serbian Foreign
Minister Vuk Jeremic, asked by Inner City Press about any link between
Abkhazia and Kosovo said of the latter that as an '"ethnic" secession,
Kosovo "is a first, which is another way of saying precedent...
Precedents aren't announced, precedents just happen." Video
here.
The commander of
the Georgian peacekeeping operations, General Mamuka Kurashvili, has
accused Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia of digging new trenches. Inner
City Press asked the UN Spokesperson at Tuesday's noon briefing if the
UN Mission in Georgia had any information in this regard, and later
received a response that "
UNOMIG has sent patrols to
most of the reported locations. In most cases, the reports proved
false. At several Abkhaz posts UNOMIG observed that 'light' works had
been carried out to improve fortifications. There were also increase in
manning levels at the Abkhaz posts following the February 29 incident,
in which three Abkhaz police officers were wounded by a mine; the levels
returned to normal as of March 7."
When Inner City Press
later on Tuesday told a Permanent Five Council member diplomat about
this "light fortification" work, the response was that rather than
Russia using Abkhazia to gain leverage vis-à-vis Kosovo, they are using
Kosovo to do what they want in Abkhazia. Other than from Olympian
heights, how would one know?
* * *
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Click
here for a
Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army.
Click
here
for an earlier
Reuters AlertNet
piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's
$200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.
Video
Analysis here
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