Turk tanker operator says Abkhazia risks too high

By Thomas Grove and Niko Mchedlishvili

ISTANBUL/TBILISI, Aug 21 (Reuters) - The Turkish operator of a tanker that was seized by Georgian authorities for delivering fuel to breakaway Abkhazia said on Friday he had given up the idea of sending any further supplies to the Black Sea territory.

Georgia has passed legislation that forbids commercial traffic heading to Abkhazia in an attempt to isolate the territory, which was recognised by Moscow as independent after a five-day war between Georgia and Russia last August.

Abkhazia has threatened a "proportionate response" to the Georgian blockade, which it says is aimed at suffocating it. The operator's statements suggested Tbilisi's actions may be working.

"The risks are too high now. We take cargo from one place to another, legally, and we don't want to deal with illegal actions such as these," said Huseyin San, general manager of the tanker operator Densa, whose company had been making regular trips to the Abkhaz port of Sukhumi to deliver fuel.

Georgia says the tanker was picked up in Georgian territorial waters, but San said Georgia had intercepted it in international waters off Turkey before taking it to the Georgian port of Poti.

San said the Georgian authorities had made no announcement of their intention before the seizure, which meant they might have breached the ship's right to pass freely through international waters.

Under Georgian law, foreigners risk prosecution if they enter Abkhazia or another breakaway region, South Ossetia, without permission from Tbilisi.

Some Abkhaz officials say the policy is simply pushing Abkhazia closer to Russia, which already controls Abkhazia's borders and patrols its coastline.