REPRESENTATIVES OF SELF-PROCLAIMED REPUBLICS SET TO GATHER IN MOSCOW

RIA Novosti
September 12, 2005

MOSCOW, September 12 (RIA Novosti) - A conference dedicated to the
problems of self-proclaimed republics in the former Soviet Union will
be held in Moscow September 14-15, a spokesman for the CIS Institute,
a Moscow based think tank on the Commonwealth of Independent States,
said Monday.

Delegations from self-proclaimed republics, Russian parliamentarians,
academics, and prominent political scientists will attend the
conference, "A Parallel CIS: Abkhazia, Transdnestr, South Ossetia
and Nagorny Karabakh as realities of post-Soviet space," which is
co-organized by the CIS Institute.

Igor Smirnov, the president of the breakaway republic of Transdnestr
in Moldova, Stanislav Lakoba, the secretary of the Security Council
of Abzkhazia, a self-proclaimed republic in western Georgia, and
Konstantin Pukhayev, the minister of culture of South Ossetia, a
self-proclaimed republic in northern Georgia, will all attend the
event, as will Kamo Atayan, the minister of education of Nagorny
Karabakh, a territory disputed by Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The participants will hold a round table September 15 "On freedom
of religion in the conflict zones," which is organized by the human
rights committee of the InterParliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy.

The spokesman added that parliamentarians from Russia, Syria,
Palestine, Estonia, and Armenia, and church officials from conflict
zone countries around the world would contribute to the discussion.