BHHRG

Across the former Soviet Union, the status of four unrecognised states with de facto independence has remained unsolved since 1991. Three of these so-called “frozen conflicts” – Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia – are in the Caucasus, close to oil and gas pipelines. Each has a friendly neighbour – Armenia for Karabakh, Russia for Abkhazia and South Ossetia – which inhibits attack by the nominal sovereign, Azerbaijan or Georgia. The fourth unrecognised state, Transnistria, is sandwiched between its sovereign claimant Moldova and Ukraine. Since March, 2006, Moldova and Ukraine, backed by the EU and United States have tried to bring rebel Transnistria to its knees with a de facto blockade. Western analysts, who have backed secessionist movements in the Balkans have demanded the enforcement of Moldova’s sovereignty - until now. Is the tide changing or are both Moldova and Transnistria being offered the kind of corrupt international trusteeship which has left Bosnia and Kosovo destitute and in the grip of organised crime and people smugglers? This Group has interviewed women smuggled into prostitution to service the NATO garrisons in the Balkans so its observers have seen at first hand the link between Western humanitarian intervention and human degradation. Now the United States has threatened to raise the “frozen conflicts” with President Putin at the G-8 Summit in St. Petersburg. Will the unrecognised states in the former Soviet Union accept what the West offers them or will Western mediation turn out to be the kind of meddling which precipitated the bloody conflicts in Yugoslavia and their sleazy aftermath?

Continuation you will find in the articles below...