TBILISI GEORGIA: Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze said Dec.7 that peaceful attempts to settle a conflict with separatist Abkhazians had failed and indicated Georgia was preparing a major offensive.
Rebels in Abkhazia, a region along the Black Sea in western Georgia, have been battling Georgian troops since mid-August. Scores of people have been killed, and thousands of refugees had fled to neighboring areas in the Caucasus Mountains.
“We must resolve the Abkhazia conflict by military means,” Shevardnadze, a former Soviet foreign minister, said on Georgian radio.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 18, 1992
