Rebels ready to defend breakaway enclave
By Michael Mainville
THE WASHINGTON Times

SUKHUMI, Georgia -- Under mounting pressure from Tbilisi, separatist leaders in Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia are warning that their armed forces, backed by Russia, are prepared to defend their territory.

"We are ready to fight them, even if they have the support of the Americans," Abkhazia's de facto president, Sergei Bagapsh, said in an interview in the capital, Sukhumi. "We have enough weapons, enough soldiers and enough friends to defend our nation."

Full Text: Published September 24, 2006