WASHINGTON, May 5 (UPI) -- Georgia is considering withdrawing from the Commonwealth of Independent States and will decide on its future relationship this week.
The CIS was formed in 1991 from former Soviet Republics. Members include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
Georgia joined the CIS in 1993. In 1995, Turkmenistan discontinued its full CIS membership and is now an associate member.
Regnum news agency reported that Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili discussed the government's deliberations on the Imedi television channel.
Georgian State Minister on Coordination of Reforms Kakha Bendukidze discussed the government's deliberations in more detail: "The matter is, various privileges are active within the CIS. For example, if a Georgian citizen wants to go to Belarus without a visa, he can do it until Georgia is a CIS member. So, we should either stay in the CIS or quit it, but sign bilateral agreements with CIS member-states on visa-free regime and free-trade regime.
"One multilateral agreement within CIS frameworks should be replaced by many bilateral ones. These are not emotions and not populism. If we manage to do it, possible economic loss in case of Georgia quitting the CIS will be low, or it won't be at all."
Bendukidze added that Russia unilaterally abrogated an agreement on a visa-free regime one-sidedly and subsequently banned the sale of Georgian goods in Russia "allegedly because of security reasons."
Myanmar's authorities are warning the country's citizens against possible terrorist attacks in some major cities.
Xinhua news agency reported May 4 that authorities in Yangon published photographs and details of 19 wanted terrorists in official newspaper New Light of Myanmar, warning citizens that the men have been dispatched by a terrorist organization to the cities of Yangon, Mandalay and Mawlamyine. Fifteen of the men are wanted in connection with bombing attacks.
Heading the list is Peter Aung of the All Burma Students' Democratic Front. Last month the government declared the ABSDF and three other groups terrorist organizations.
Myanmar government officials report that Aung is currently based in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, and working with members of the National Council of the Union of Burma and Shan State Army-South, two other organizations on the government's terrorist list.
The authorities are urging citizens with information about the men to call it in to the government using four designated telephones in Yangon, Mandalay, Mawlamyine and Nay Pyi Taw.
In May 2005, a series of bomb attacks at the Yangon Trade Center and Junction-8 and Dagon shopping centers killed 23 people and injured 150 more.
On April 20, five bombings occurred in Yangon, resulting in extensive property damage but no casualties. Six days later, a bomb blast in the Zay Cho market in Mandalay killed two women and injured 15 others.
A 20-year-old Danish Turk and an 18-year-old Swede have pled not guilty to charges of planning a terrorist attack in Bosnia-Herzegovina during a court hearing in Sarajevo.
The pair were arrested on October 24 in Sarajevo. One of them is said to have recorded a video reciting Islamic prayers, which may have been intended as a farewell suicide document.
Denmark radio reported on May 3 that the pair, along with a Bosnian man, will be charged with planning terrorist acts. Two other Bosnians have also been charged with supplying the three men with explosives and weapons.
Bosnian police suspect the men intended to attack either a European Union military base or the British or U.S. embassies in Sarajevo. Security was stepped up at foreign embassies following the arrests.
The case has already had problems: two of the defendants charged have been released on bail, with one of them agreeing to serve as a prosecution witness. But the man has gone into hiding.
A firm court date has not yet been set in Sarajevo.
In a related development, a judge in Broendbyerne, Copenhagen, has extended detention orders to May 30 on four people who have been in custody since Oct. 28, charged with preparing to carry out a terrorist attack. Danish police picked up the four Muslim men, aged 16-20, after the arrests in Sarajevo. Danish police believe the four know the Danish-Turkish man being held in Sarajevo.
Alarmed by growing Maoist violence in India's northeast, the Home Ministry has asked the Indian Air Force for assistance.
The Telegraph reported May 3 that the Home Ministry has requested that helicopters be sent for use in counter-terrorist operations. The Defense Ministry has reacted cautiously to the request and called for a wider consensus in government before the military becomes directly involved in combating the Maoists.
Local police forces and paramilitaries are currently engaging the Maoists, but Home Ministry officials, in meetings with their defense counterparts, argue that the difficult terrain, inter-state border issues and landmines deter the rapid deployment of central paramilitary forces. The Home Ministry wants Indian Air Force MiG-17 helicopters to be used to transport local security personnel from camps to operational areas.
Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee has suggested that the Cabinet Committee on Security discuss the implications of using air power in the campaign against Naxalites before aerial assets are committed.
Mukherjee is concerned about the political implications of using such tactics, having been briefed by IAF officers that even in Jammu and Kashmir helicopters have proved problematic in counter-insurgency operations.
Officials in Delhi are increasingly concerned about the Naxalite insurgency. Last month Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during a meeting with chief ministers of six states battling the guerrillas, described the Maoist insurgency as India's "single biggest internal security threat."
