STATEMENT OF THE PARLIAMENT OF
The Parliament of Georgia is
expressing deep concern regarding the existing situation in the sphere of
settling the Abkhazian conflict, as well as on the announcement of Vladislav Ardzinba, leader of the
separatist regime, which contained a call for one sided return of the IDPs to Gali region from March 1.
The Sokhumi authorities,
speculating on the hard social-economic conditions of the IDPs,
are trying to take advantage of the intolerable living conditions of these
people and use this factor in their own favor. By means of entrapping them in
the region as cheap labor force, they are aiming at portraying this action as a
humanitarian endeavor and as demonstration of their goodwill before the
international community.
All this is happening in Gali, at the background of tragic events of February 1994,
March 1995 and May 1998, which took the lives of hundreds of innocent people;
the atrocities committed by the separatists have been assessed by OSCE and UN
as ethnic cleansing targeted at changing the demographic situation in the
region.
The days in March of the
current year one more time confirmed the suspicions and mistrust of the IDPs against the idea of the separatists on one sided
return and therefore, it has been already for two weeks that on the banks of
the Enguri river, nearby the
control check-point, the sitting protest action of the IDPs
is going on.
The Parliament of Georgia
considers it totally unacceptable to start the return of the IDPs in one sided manner without the agreement of the
Abkhaz and Georgian parties, as well as without studying and reviewing the
given situation in the light of the international security mechanisms.
The President of Georgia, as
well as the High Commission of Refugees and the Group of Friends of Georgia,
participants of the negotiations within the
The Parliament of Georgia is
appealing to the executive government to initiate actions in compliance with
the Decree of the Parliament of Georgia on The Remedies of Settling the
Conflict in Abkhazia, dated
In addition, the Parliament of
Georgia is bringing to the attention of the international community the
voluntary statement regarding the return of the IDPs
to their former dwelling places and declares that the responsibility for the
expected results will be laid solely on the separatist regime of the region.
(Abkhaz Issue in Official Documents, Legislative
and Executive organs of Georgia, International Organizations, 1989-1999, part
II, 1995-1999; authors: Vakhtang Kholbaia,
Teimuraz Chakhrakia, Rafiel Gelantia, David Latsuzbaia, Tb., 2000, p. 280-281)