Letter to International Media companies by MFA Abkhazia

To whom it may concern,

Writing from the capital of Abkhazia, I have to say that the Western reaction to events in South Ossetia (and now here in Abkhazia) presented in discussions at the UN Security Council and by such news-channels as CNN and BBC World has been unacceptably biased.

Those (such as the US and UK representatives at the UN and a host of broadcasters and commentators across the media) whose main concern seems to be the upholding of Georgia's territorial integrity and the associated removal therefrom of Russian forces should be required to answer one simple question: since it is a logical conclusion of this position that the authorities in Tbilisi would enjoy 'carte blanche' to shell, slaughter and displace the South Ossetians and Abkhazians (as well as the other minorities who live in these regions and, let there be no mistake, other parts of Georgia), as the Saak'ashvili regime demonstrated to be its aim in S. Ossetia on 7th August, where in the balance of principles and priorities do they place the rights of ethnic minorities, when the state in which the international community has determined that they should live has lost all moral authority by its actions over almost two decades to exercise its right to rule over them?

Yours truly, Maxim Gvindzhia, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Republic of Abkhazia