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Tue, 14:28 24 Nov 2009 GMT17

 
Georgia, Abkhazia, S. Ossetia

Last reviewed: 22-07-2009

TWO REGIONS STRUGGLE FOR AUTONOMY


Georgia, a South Caucasus nation with around 4.4 million people, has been wrestling with two breakaway regions within its territory since declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Georgia also hosts part of a pipeline pumping oil from the Caspian Sea through to Turkey and onto Europe.

  • War with Russia in August 2008 over rebel regions
  • Hundreds of thousands displaced by violence
  • Source of tension between Russia and the West

    Both Abkhazia in the northwest and South Ossetia in the north fought Tbilisi's forces in the early 1990s, eventually throwing off central government control and carving out enclaves where they set up de facto authorities.

    The two regions have since been running their own affairs with Russian support but are not recognised internationally.

    In August 2008, Georgia tried to recapture South Ossetia but Russia responded with a counter-offensive and repelled the attack. Russian forces poured over the border, pushing beyond South Ossetia and blowing up Georgian military bases and equipment.

    More than 127,000 people fled their homes during fierce fighting, according to U.N. estimates, adding to the more than 220,000 people already displaced by conflicts in South Ossetia and Abkhazia in the early 1990s.

    Hundreds were killed during the heavy fighting.

    The majority of those who fled in 2008 have since returned home, but around 20,000 ethnic Georgians who fled from South Ossetia are still living in temporary accommodation, says the International Committee for the Red Cross.

    Moscow, which also boosted separatists in Abkhazia with additional troops and armour, formally announced that it recognised both regions' independence.

    Georgia has become a source of tension between Russia and the United States, which wants Georgia to join NATO.


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    REUTERS PICTURES OF THE DECADE. A Georgian man cries as he holds the body of his relative after a bombardment in Gori, 80 km (50 miles) from Tbilisi, August 9, 2008. ...


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