Shevardnadze Asks NATO Aid in Georgia Strife
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BRUSSELS — Georgian leader Eduard A. Shevardnadze on Wednesday asked NATO peacekeepers to help end his nation’s bloody conflict with Abkhazian separatists.
In a speech at NATO headquarters, he also urged the West to act urgently to help end all the conflicts that have erupted in the newly independent republics of the Caucasus region since they emerged from the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Georgia’s yearlong battle with ethnic Muslim separatists in the Black Sea region of Abkhazia has killed more than 1,500 people. Fighting has continued despite a truce signed last month.
The fighting has threatened to entangle Georgia in open conflict with its northern neighbor, Russia, which Georgian leaders have accused of supporting the separatists.
Manfred Woerner, secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, said the 16-nation alliance will have to study Shevardnadze’s request.
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