RESOLUTION OF THE PEOPLE’S
ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ABKHAZIA “On Legal Assessment of Aggressive War,
Unleashed by
On August 25, 1990, the Supreme
Council of the Abkhazian ASSR adopted Declaration on state sovereignty of
Abkhazia and the Resolution on legal guarantees of protecting statehood of
Abkhazia, in which it has been declared that as a result of the decisions,
adopted by the Supreme Council of the Georgian SSR, entering of Abkhazia in the
statehood of Georgia, has been devoid of legal foundation.
On
On the basis of the results of this
referendum, on
With a purpose of protection
of own statehood and overcoming of legal vacuum between Abkhazia and Georgia,
the Supreme Council of Abkhazia on July 23, 1992 adopted the Resolution on
cessation of the Constitution of the Abkhazian ASSR of 1978 and on return to
the Constitution of Abkhazian SSR of 1925. In accordance with it, Abkhazia was
a sovereign state, subject of International Law (Article 5) and it had
contractual committments with Georgia.
Abkhazia proposed to Georgia
to discuss an issue of restoration of state and legal relations between the two
independent states but instead of the civilized decision of the problem, on
August 14, 1992, Georgia committed armed aggression against sovereign Abkhazia.
The initiators and and organizers of this criminal aggressive war were the top
officilas of the Georgian state: Z. Gamsakhurdia, E. Shevardnadze, T. Sigua, T.
Kitovani and J. Ioseliani.
The aggressive war, unleashed
by Georgia, in its essense was contradicting the Charter of the UNO and was
under the jurisdiction of the Resolution of general Assembly of the UNO of
December 14, 1974, No 3314 (XXIX) ”Definition of Aggression”. (In compliance
with article 1 of the Resolution ”Aggression is an application of military
force by the state against the sovereignity, territorial integrity or political
independence of the other state”, at the same time, ”the term ”state” is used
without reference to the issue of recognition or whether the state is a member
of the United Nations Organization”.
Article 2 of the document stipulates that ”application of the military force
from the first by the side of the state, in violation of the UN Charter, is a
prove of the act of aggression”, and as article 5 declares ”no determinations
of political, economic or military charcter can justify it”). In the actions of the armed forces of Georgia on
the territory of Abkhazia have been traced all the signs of crimes against
mankind and humanity, defined by the article 3 of the mentioned document. The
objective of the aggression was to conquer the country’s territory, abolishment
of the statehood of Abkhazia, physical extermination of Abkhazs and deportation
of the non-Georgian population. In accordance with article 7 of the given
resolution, such actions are in contradiction with ”the right to
self-determination, freedom and independence of peoples, based on the UN
Charter, which are bymeans of violence deprived of this right and about which
there has been mentioned in the Declaration on principles of International
Law.”
The decision of the State Council
of Georgia of
The occupant troops were committing
murders, raping, robbing and driving out representatives of non-Georgian
nationality. The aggressor was methodically demolishing towns and villages of
Abkhazia by means of heavy military technique and armament, including arms,
prohibited by Geneva Convention of 1949. In the war years in the occupied
The Aggressive war of
The People’s Assembly of the
1. To recognize the entrance of the
Georgian military units to Abkhazia on August 14, 1992, by the decision of the
State Council of Georgia of August 11, 1992 and the consequent military
activities as:
b) Intrusion of the armed forces of
the state into the territory of the independent state;
c) Aggressive war, directed against
the state of the
d) An attempt of abolishing of
the statehood of Abkhazia.
2. To consider as initiators, organizers and
authors of the aggressive war, unleashed by
3. To assign to the Prosecutor General
of Abkhazia: To expedite investigation of criminal cases against the mentioned
persons because of the aggressive war, unleashed by them and to prepare the
respective materials for submitting them to the International Tribunal on
military crimes.
4. To recognize that the occupation
troops of Georgia, violating laws and customs of conducting operations,
envisaged by International Law, were committing on the occupied territory
multitude of crimes against peace, military crimes and crimes against humanity.
These crimes were including such as: purposeful physical extermination of
citizens of Abkhazian nationality that in compliance with article 2 of “the
Convention of the UNO on prevention of the crime of genocide and the punishment
of this crime” of
5. To establish a fact of
deportation of citizens of Abkhazia – Greeks, Jews, Abkhazs, Russians,
Armenians and representatives of other peoples, committed by occupation
authorities and to note that deportation
of civil population, as form of creating conditions, meant for full or partial
extermination of specific ethnic or social group, is under the definition of
“ethnic cleansing”, which in compliance with Interim report of Commission of
experts of the UNO NS/25274 of February 10, 1993 is defined as “crime against
humanity” that has no statute of limitation and is under the action of “the
Convention on prevention of the crime of genocide and the punishment of this
crime”.
6. To recognize that on the
occupied territory, in violation of all the norms of International Law, houses
and property of refugees or deported inhabitants of Abkhazia were demolished or
were transferred to the ownership of persons, who were supporting and
immediately participating in the aggressive war
7. To ascertain that the aggressive
war, unleashed by
8. To consider that Georgia has
ignored provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (article 9,
paragraph “a”), where it is indicated that no one can be subjected to arbitrary
detention, imprisonment or expatriation.
9. To propose to the President of
the Republic of Abkhazia to apply to the UNO, the OSCE, CoE, the EU, the
Russian Federation, the Group of Friends UN Secretary General, all the
stake-holders of peaceful settlement of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict with a
request to define the actions of Georgia in the period of 1992-1993 as
aggressive war against the sovereign state and people of the Republic of
Abkhazia.
(The Archive of the Foreign Affairs of