South Ossetia and Abkhazia insist on their right to participate in the discussion of the problem of refugees in the UN, according to a joint statement of the republics at the Geneva discussions on security and stability in Transcaucasia.
“For several years in a row, the UN General Assembly has been adopting a draft resolution introduced by Georgia on refugees and displaced persons from Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Repeating the text of the document from year to year, Georgia is trying to impose on the world community a one-sided, politicized and distorted vision of the problem of refugees in order to bolster its illegitimate territorial claims,” the document provided to IA "RES".
The panelists have noted that the next draft of the UNGA Resolution on Refugees and Displaced Persons submitted by Georgia in June 2019, the text of which does not differ from the earlier resolutions of the UNGA, speaks of confirming the right of all IDPs (internally displaced persons - ed.) and refugees and their descendants to return "to their homes throughout Georgia, including Abkhazia and South Ossetia."
“The text of the resolution imposed on the international community is silent on the fact that the appearance of these refugees and displaced persons is directly connected with the wars unleashed by Georgia against South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It is not said that of the more than one hundred thousand Ossetians who fled ethnic cleansing from the territory of Georgia and found refuge in South Ossetia and the Russian Federation, only a few were able to return to their homes, the statement said. - The text of the resolution is silent that the governments of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, on their own initiative, returned tens of thousands of Georgian refugees to their places of permanent residence. The text of the resolution submitted by Georgia not only does not take into account the prevailing political realities, in particular, the fact that South Ossetia and Abkhazia are independent states, but also proves the complete absence of Georgia’s desire to find a solution to complex humanitarian problems.”
The authors of the statement have noted that it is absolutely obvious that the resolution dragged in from year to year by Georgia not only cannot help improving the situation of refugees from Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but also negatively affects the course of the Geneva discussions, which continue to be the only platform where representatives of South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Georgia have the opportunity to discuss a wide range of the existing problems, including the problem of refugees and displaced persons.
The main key to solving the refugee problem, the statement says, is “not diplomatic tricks and resolution-oriented decisions”, but a departure from confrontational attitudes and the signing of a legally binding agreement on the refusal to use force, and ultimately a peace treaty between Georgia, on the one hand, and the Republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, on the other one.
Georgia’s politicization of refugee problems undermines the work on this track within the framework of the Geneva discussions: “Since Georgia prefers to discuss issues related to the situation of refugees and IDPs in such an authoritative international body as the UN General Assembly, South Ossetia and Abkhazia insist on their right to participate in discussing this problem within the walls of the UN. As long as the political games continue around the problem of refugees behind the backs of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the discussion of this issue within the Geneva discussions will have no meaning.”
