Turk tanker operator says Abkhazia risks too high
Fri Aug 21, 2009 8:05pm IST
By Thomas Grove and Niko Mchedlishvili
ISTANBUL/TBILISI, Aug 21 (Reuters) - The Turkish operator of
a tanker that was seized by Georgian authorities for delivering
fuel to breakaway Abkhazia said on Friday he had given up the
idea of sending any further supplies to the Black Sea territory.
Georgia has passed legislation that forbids commercial
traffic heading to Abkhazia in an attempt to isolate the
territory, which was recognised by Moscow as independent after a
five-day war between Georgia and Russia last August.
Abkhazia has threatened a "proportionate response" to the
Georgian blockade, which it says is aimed at suffocating it. The
operator's statements suggested Tbilisi's actions may be
working.
"The risks are too high now. We take cargo from one place to
another, legally, and we don't want to deal with illegal actions
such as these," said Huseyin San, general manager of the tanker
operator Densa, whose company had been making regular trips to
the Abkhaz port of Sukhumi to deliver fuel.
Georgia says the tanker was picked up in Georgian
territorial waters, but San said Georgia had intercepted it in
international waters off Turkey before taking it to the Georgian
port of Poti.
San said the Georgian authorities had made no announcement
of their intention before the seizure, which meant they might
have breached the ship's right to pass freely through
international waters.
Under Georgian law, foreigners risk prosecution if they
enter Abkhazia or another breakaway region, South Ossetia,
without permission from Tbilisi.
Some Abkhaz officials say the policy is simply pushing
Abkhazia closer to Russia, which already controls Abkhazia's
borders and patrols its coastline.
Abkhaz Economy Minister Kristina Ozgan said on Thursday that
Abkhazia would import 500 tonnes of diesel from Russia to
compensate for the tanker's detention.
Almost all investment in Abkhazia comes from immediate
neighbour Russia, which recognised the regions on its southern
border as independent states after crushing a Georgian assault
on South Ossetia last August.
Abkhazia depends mainly on Russian land deliveries of raw
materials. Ninety-seven percent of food products are imported
overland from Russia.
Moscow, usually vociferous in its support of Abkhazia
against Georgian actions, has so far remained silent on the ship
seizure.
AUCTION OFF
Georgia said on Friday that the fate of the ship, its cargo
and crew were in the hands of the courts. Local media reports
have suggested the cargo could be confiscated and auctioned.
San says he will open an international court case citing the
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea if authorities
try to unload the ship and sell its $3-4 million worth of petrol
and diesel.
San, who said he had spoken with the captain, currently
being held with a crew of 13 Turks and 4 Azeris in Batumi, said
everyone who was on board the ship was well.
The captain faces up to 24 years in prison if found guilty
of smuggling and violating the Georgian ban on unauthorised
economic activity.
On Thursday, the Georgian coastguard said it had detained
another vessel carrying scrap metal from Abkhazia. It was
operating under a Cambodian flag with a Syrian crew, and the
coastguard said it was the fourth such seizure this year.
A lush strip of sub-tropical territory on the Black Sea,
Abkhazia was once the playground of the Soviet elite, and hopes
to position itself again as a popular tourist destination.
(Additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in London)
http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINLL42125320090821
