For several years, the UN General Assembly has been adopting the draft resolution introduced by Georgia on refugees and internally displaced persons from Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Repeating from year after year the text of the document, Georgia tries to impose on the world community one-sided, politicized and distorted vision of the refugee question, in order to back up its illegitimate territorial claims.
The UN General Assembly Resolution on refugees and internally displaced persons, introduced by Georgia in June 2014, the text of which does not differ from the previously adopted resolutions of the UN General Assembly, confirms the right of all IDPs and refugees and their descendants to return "to their homes throughout Georgia, including Abkhazia and South Ossetia."
The resolution, increasingly being imposed on the international community, is silent about the fact that the emergence of these refugees and internally displaced persons is directly connected with the war unleashed by Georgia against South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It has also ignored that of more than one hundred thousand Ossetians fleeing from ethnic cleansing carried out on the territory of Georgia they have found refuge in South Ossetia and in the Russian Federation, and only a few of them managed to return to their homes.
The resolution is silent, that the government of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on their own initiative returned to places of permanent residence tens of thousands of Georgian refugees. The text of the resolution submitted by Georgia not only takes into account current political realities, in particular, the fact that South Ossetia and Abkhazia are independent states, but also shows a complete lack of Georgia`s aspiration to find a solution of complex humanitarian problems.
It is quite obvious that the resolution imposed from year to year by Georgia does not contribute to solving the problem of refugees from Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but also adversely affects the course of the Geneva discussions, which continue to be the only platform where the representatives of South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Georgia have the opportunity to discuss a wide range of existing problems, including the problem of refugees and internally displaced persons.
The main key to solving the refugee question is not diplomatic tricks and resolutions designed for propaganda effect, but departure from confrontational attitudes, the signing of a legally binding agreement on the non-use of force, and ultimately - peace treaty between Georgia and Abkhazia, Georgia and South Ossetia.
Politicization of the refugee question by Georgia undermines the work to solve this problem within the framework of the Geneva talks. As Georgia prefers to discuss issues related to the status of refugees and IDPs in such an authoritative international body like the UN General Assembly, South Ossetia and Abkhazia insist on their right to participate in the discussion of this problem at the UN. As long as continue political games around the refugee question behind Abkhazia and South Ossetia, there will be no meaning to discuss this issue within the framework of the Geneva talks.
