This is the second, completed edition of the collection issued by us in January 2002 under the same title. The second edition has been enriched by 76 new documents and its chronological area has been expended to 2002.
The collection is composed of 379 most important political-legal acts arranged in chronological order reflecting the process of conflicts in the Autonomous Oblast of South Ossetia and the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia in 1989-2002 and activities directed at finding solutions to these conflicts. These documents are:
1. Acts issued by the Authorities of autonomous regions, aimed at regionalisation, political decentralization, cessation from the State with a view of further strengthening the sovereignty of these regions;
2. Acts issued by the Georgian Authorities and Governmental organs, aimed at strengthening the State sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia;
3. Decisions and resolutions made by neighboring States (the USSR, RSFSR, RF, Subjects of Rf, USA) and international and regional organizations (the UN, OSCE, Council of Europe, European Union, CIS);
4. Bilateral and multilateral agreements related to settlement of the conflicts;
5. Other important documents related to the aforementioned problems.
Many documents presented in the collection have been subjected to minor abbreviations-emphasis has been put on those articles, chapters and paragraphs that most clearly and potently reflect the major goal of the collection and the essence of the documents themselves.
The principle goal of the collection is to make available for the international community the political-legal information (knowledge) relating to and reflecting regional conflicts existing in Georgia; to provide unbiased and comprehensive coverage of the developments of conflicts unfolded in these two regions of Georgia and conflict settlement process, result of those steps to that direction, undertaken by the Sides to the conflicts and regional and international organizations.
This edition, which does not claim do be perfect, is expected to promote and contribute to the process of creation of appropriate and correct public opinion about the conflicts and help the process of making just and effective decisions aimed at the conflicts settlement.