Arcadia Foundation

The tiny Pacific island of Nauru recognized the rebel Black Sea region of Abkhazia on Tuesday, throwing its weight behind a Russian drive to win international recognition for Georgia’s breakaway territories.

The island of 14,000 people joined Russia, Nicaragua and Venezuela in recognizing Abkhazia, following a five-day war last year between Russia and Georgia over breakaway South Ossetia.

“We have established relations with the world’s biggest nation (Russia), and now with the smallest,” Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba told Reuters.

However, Georgia said Russia had “bought recognition.”

“It doesn’t change anything in international politics,” said Minister for Reintegration Temur Iakobashvili. “If someone is happy that Abkhazia is now recognized by the country no one knew about yesterday, let him be happy.”

Russia’s Kommersant newspaper cited a source on Monday as saying Nauru had asked Russia for $50 million for projects on the island, which once made its money from exporting phosphates mined from fossilized bird droppings.

Asked if Nauru had been paid to recognize Abkhazia, Shamba replied: “You don’t establish diplomatic relations like that … although of course the entire international practice is sheer bargaining to a certain extent.”

Shamba said Abkhazia was lobbying Latin American countries and the Middle East, but the process was “hampered by mighty forces,” such as the United States and European Union.

Russia’s RIA Novosti quoted Nauru Foreign Minister Kieren Keke as saying: “I hope that other countries will follow our example and also recognize the independence of Abkhazia.”

Nauru, an island of 21 square km (8 square miles), gained independence in 1968 and joined the United Nations in 1999 as the world’s smallest independent republic, according to the CIA World Factbook. It is 14,000 km (8,700 miles) from Abkhazia.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Georgian rule in wars in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

After mounting tensions, Georgia launched an assault on South Ossetia in August 2008, triggering a devastating Russian counter-strike.

Interim Honduran President Roberto Micheletti says he plans to stay in power until the country’s newly elected president begins his term at the end of January.

Micheletti says he will not step down early, despite increasing international pressure. In a radio interview Tuesday, he said Congress had authorized him to serve until president-elect Porfirio Lobo takes office Jan. 27.

The United States and Brazil urged Micheletti to step down Monday, saying his resignation would allow ousted president Manuel Zelaya safe passage out of Honduras.

Last week Micheletti’s de facto government stopped two attempts by Zelaya to leave Honduras because the ousted leader refused to concede he is no longer president.

Although the initial results of the Chilean elections appear to show strong support for Sebastian Pinera, the real news, according to the UK’s Morning Star, is that for the first time since the coup in 1973 the Chilean Communist Party has achieved parliamentary representation.

The Chilean constitution enshrines a unique electoral system in which each constituency is represented by two seats, with a party needing to achieve 60 per cent of the vote to carry both seats.

If, as is most common, this percentage is not achieved, the second seat goes to the second party list with the result that the candidate with the most votes sometimes does not get a seat and that the parties of the right then become over-represented in parliament.

This system, together with a hostile media, the effects of 17 years of active repression during the dictatorship and the international impact of the collapse of the Soviet Union, have prevented the Chilean left from achieving parliamentary representation in the 19 years since Pinochet stepped down.

The left’s exclusion has prevented its message from reaching many sectors of society, but many in the parties of the left and their allies now believe that this period of Chilean history is finished.

Ultimately however, Conservative billionaire Sebastian Pinera is the favorite to win Chile’s presidential run-off.

Although the Left has been credited with raising Chile’s living standards to the highest in the region the coalition has been weakened by defections and in-fighting.

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