http://www.moscowtimes.ru/article/1010/42/381074.htm
Abkhazia Threatens Tbilisi Over Seizure of Fuel Tanker
21 August 2009Reuters
TBILISI, Georgia - Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region accused Tbilisi on
Thursday of trying to suffocate the Black Sea territory and threatened a
"proportionate response" after Georgian authorities detained a tanker
delivering fuel.
Georgia has stepped up efforts to isolate Abkhazia and another breakaway
region, South Ossetia, since a five-day war with Russia last August. It has
banned economic and commercial activities there without its permission.
The Turkish captain of the tanker, operating under a Panama flag, was
remanded in custody Wednesday and faces up to 24 years imprisonment if found
guilty of smuggling and violating the ban on unauthorized economic activity.
"Under the law in force in Georgia, we don't even have the right to
breathe without permission from Tbilisi," Abkhazia's foreign minister, Sergei
Shamba, told Interfax.
"We warned Georgia that we can make a proportionate response, take the
same kind of actions that the Georgian side allows itself," he said.
The tanker, with its Turkish and Azeri crew, was detained in the Black
Sea off the Georgian coast on Monday carrying 2,000 tons of gasoline and 700
tons of diesel.
No date has been set for the captain's trial. Abkhazia said it was the
third case of "Georgian piracy" this year. The tanker remains in the Georgian
port of Poti.
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