STATEMENT OF THE PARLIAMENT OF GEORGIA

The parliament of Georgia expresses surprise and indignity with the statement made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia on December 21, 1999. The official authorities in Moscow have already repeatedly made absolutely unjustified accusations against Georgia. hey blamed Georgia of equipping with weapons and assisting financially the Chechen side that does not correspond to the reality rementation

The Georgian side has several times confirmed its readiness to receive the observers from the Russian Federation at the Chechen stretch of the Russian-Georgian border so that Government of the Russian Federation aforementioned turned out to be unacceptable for the Russian side, as its actual goal was the usage of the territory of Georgia like the bridgehead for Georgia, as to the independent and Sovereign State. Such an action would have caused the expansion of the seat of war to the territory of Georgia and the involvement of Georgia and the whole South Caucasus in the military operations.

It’s groundless to declare that the OSCE mission has identified the presence of the Chechen fighters on the territory of Georgia. Actually none of such facts have been mentioned in the OSCE reports.

The accusation of Russia that the Representative of the Republic of Ichkerya Mr. Khizry Aldamov receives top level treatment by the Georgian Governmental officials does not answer the realty. In this regard it would be bizarre to speak about this whereas Mr. Akhba, the permanent representative of the separatist regime of Abkhazia, has regular meetings and consultations with high rank officials of the Russian Government.

Georgia recognizes the territorial integrity of Russia, does not intervene in Russia1s internal affairs and respect its sovereignty. This has been confirmed many times, in particular, by the unilateral ratification of the Framework Treaty between Russia and Georgia.

Georgia recognizes the necessity to fight against terrorism and aggressive separatism and believes that adequate measures must be taken to this purpose as it is impossible to eradicate terrorism by the full-scale military operation which brings suffering mostly to the peaceful population.

Georgia respects the fundamentals of the modern International Humanitarian Law and despite the presence of more than 300 thousand IDPs in the country, it has to receive the citizens of Russia who have fled from the conflict zone. The absolute majority of the refugees are women and children. In addition, the Georgian side suspects that Russian side artificially masterminded the flow of refugees from Chechnya in order to create an additional seat of instability in Georgia.

The Parliament of Georgia considers that the groundless mentioning of the name of the international terrorist Ben Laden in the context of Georgia is meant to mislead the world society and to create a negative public opinion about Georgia seem embarrassing, whereas Russia protects Igor Giorgadze, suspect in the terrorist attack on the President of Georgia, and systematically offers him the different means of media.

The aforementioned is one more vivid confirmation of double standards of Russian policy towards Georgia though Georgia is committed to its consistent policy towards the Russian Federation. The creation and inspiration, as well as political-military support of aggressive separatism in Abkhazia is the "best' example of double standard Russian policy.

The Parliament of Georgia considers all accusations leveled by Russia as absurd ones and remonstrates against those aggressive actions committed against Georgia under the pretext of the solution of the conflict in Chechnya-regular violation of the Georgian air space by the Russian aviation, bombing of the sovereign Georgia, anti-Georgian hysteria in Russian Mass Media-only feeds further deterioration of the Russian-Georgian relations and deepens the existing gap between Moscow and Tbilisi.

The Parliament of Georgia regards the recent anti-Georgian actions, among them the aforementioned statement made by the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Russia, as attempts to lay ground for destabilization not only in Georgia, but in the whole South Caucasus. The information available to the Georgian Government, as well as the statement of a high-rank Russian General Victor Kazantsev made on 21 December in Mozdoc about the possible terrorist acts against the top Georgian officials, leads to the same conclusion.

The Parliament of Georgia expresses its firm protest regarding the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and hopes that the Russian Authorities will not spare efforts to stamp out the anti-Georgian campaign, therefore making constructive and equal relationship between the two neighboring countries possible. Otherwise, the Parliament of Georgia declares that the authorities of Russian Federation will bear full responsibility for further deterioration of relations between Russia and Georgia.

Tbilisi, 24 December, 1999

(Archive of the Parliament of Georgia)