By RIA Novosti
Tbilisi : Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said on Tuesday he could see no parallels between the situation in his country and Serbia, where Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia on Sunday.
The United States and some European countries have already recognized Kosovo’s status, while the president of the breakaway Georgian Republic of Abkhazia said on Monday that his country was planning to ask Russia to recognize its independence. South Ossetia, another de facto independent Georgian republic, is likely to follow suit.
“There is a very big difference between the situation in Kosovo and Georgia. Kosovo residents themselves became victims of ethnic cleansing, while ethnic cleansing in Georgia’s conflict zones was conducted by the separatists themselves,” Saakashvili told foreign journalists.
Saakashvili was quoted as saying that his country’s government would be cautious about acknowledging Kosovo’s independence.
“Nobody has asked Georgia about this, and Kosovo’s independence is not Georgia’s greatest problem,” Saakashvili said.
Both Abkhazia and South Ossetia, another Georgian breakaway republic, declared their independence from Georgia in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and bloody conflicts ensued. Georgia’s current leadership has been seeking to recover its influence in the separatist regions and secure international support on the issue.
The CIS Collective Security Force, which is made up of Russian military personnel, is deployed in the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict zone and ensure that peace is maintained. Abkhazia has been seeking international backing for its independence.