6 Jul 2008
Explosions rock Abkhazia
Four explosions were reported at various parts of the de facto border between Abkhazia and Georgia today, according to Al-Jazeera.
The initial explosions reportedly took place in the village of Rukhi. A fourth bomb exploded under a police vehicle, wounding the local police chief after he arrived to investigate.
These explosions come as a series of violent events have bristled nerves and upped tensions in the region. The border between Abkhazia and Georgia was closed suddenly July 1 after explosions in the Abkhazian capital city Sukhumi injured eight people, including a Russian. In South Ossetia, another Georgian break away region, mortar exchanges between the Georgian army and separatist forces turned deadly for the first time in many years (for more from Three Kings: June 5, June 6).
Abkhazian authorities claim these attacks have all been perpetrated by Georgia, which seeks to hurt the local economy during the tourist season. Sukhumi is a popular resort town for Russians seeking to relax along the Black sea. The Russian Tourist Industry Union claims that tourism in the area is likely to decrease by 20 percent due to recent violence.
I myself was about an hour away from Sukhumi in Sochi, Russia in May. Having looked into the Abkhazian situation while studying in Saint-Petersburg, a classmate and I sought to travel to the city and see look at the situation with our own eyes. A Russian friend of ours went ahead and asked about the safety of Americans traveling in the area, and whether or not we’d be let in. She reported back that they said “Americans would be let in, but not let out.” It wasn’t clear exactly what that meant, but I was on vacation and didn’t particularly want to spend part of my week off either dead or kidnapped.
[...] incidents (see my earlier posts here and here) have bolstered tensions cummulating in the Georgia cutting all diplomatic ties with Moscow on July [...]
United States begins training Georgian troops «
July 18th, 2008 at 5:30 ampermalink