MOSCOW. June 29 (Interfax-AVN) - There is fear in the Georgian separatist province of Abkhazia that growing tension between Georgia and its other breakaway province, South Ossetia, will trigger a war that would engulf Abkhazia as well, an Abkhaz leader said on Tuesday.
"In the event of a new armed conflict, hundreds of volunteers from Abkhazia would go to South Ossetia," Vice President Valery Arshba told Interfax-Military News Agency by telephone. "Volunteers from Abkhazia are determined to fight for South Ossetia."
"Abkhazia has warned Tbilisi that pressure on South Ossetia is undesirable, and those statements should have dampened the enthusiasm of Georgian politicians," Arshba said.
"It should be realized in Tbilisi that the Ajarian scenario for a 'rose revolution' won't work in Abkhazia or South Ossetia," he said in reference to the bloodless removal this spring of the separatist leader of the Georgian region of Ajaria, Aslan Abashidze.
Both Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have had de facto independence since the 1990s but have been considered unrecognized states, have rejected appeals by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili for immediate reunification talks, but Saakashvili has promised that Georgia will regain control over both regions.