RUSSIA SAYS GEORGIA USING PIG CORPSES FOR 'BIOLOGICAL TERRORISM'      
AFP
August 10, 2007

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As Georgia drummed up support over an alleged Russian missile strike this week, Moscow on Friday charged Tbilisi with threatening the region with a somewhat less sophisticated menace: dead pigs.

The hint of the highly uneven match-up stems from an epidemic of African Swine Fever that hit Georgia in June, threatening to wipe out its pig population of about half a million.

Russia accused Georgia of dumping diseased swine corpses in the Kodori river, which runs through Georgia's Russian-backed breakaway region of Abkhazia to the Black Sea.

"It is unacceptable to throw corpses of dead animals in the Kodori river... which given its consequences, is equivalent to carrying out biological terrorism," Russian agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement.

Moscow called on the World Organisation for Animal Health to chastise Georgian authorities, as well as "warn the veterinary services of all Black Sea region countries of the dangers of such a practice."

The charge was the oddest turn in months-long tensions between the two states, which climaxed on Monday when a Russian-made missile landed on Georgian territory.

Tbilisi called it an intentional attack, while Russian generals adamantly deny they launched the missile.