Abkhazia urges UN General Assembly to listen to it on refugees

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Abkhazia has called the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN GA) to make, when considering the issue of refugees from this republic, "well-balanced and wise decisions as necessary to prevent conflict escalation and address humanitarian problems."

This appeal is present in the statement of the Abkhazian MFA disseminated in the context of the voting at the sitting of the UN GA on the resolution concerning refugees and forced migrants from Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

At the same time, the statement notes that "the General Assembly will again make its decision on the basis of the materials presented only by one - Georgian - party, without taking into account the opinion and arguments of the Abkhazian party; thus making any decision adopted during the planned debates unproductive and biased."

The document emphasizes that "by preventing Abkhazia's participation in debates on these crucial issues, Georgia is openly demonstrating its unwillingness to objectively consider the problem, and its intention to use in the future the problem of refugees as a pretext for resuming the conflict."

Meanwhile, "the problem of refugees in Georgia is a result of Georgia's policy of aggression and the numerous wars unleashed by Georgia," the statement notes.

"Georgia also fails to mention that Abkhazia, being a party of the conflict, has unilaterally returned more than 50,000 out of 190,000 Georgian refugees, which is unprecedented in international practice in this sort of conflicts. Georgia, on the contrary, all these years from the start of the process of refugees' return has continued indulging the terrorist activity on the Abkhazian side of the border that has led to hundreds of victims among militaries and peaceful residents," runs the statement.

In the opinion of the MFA, "return of all Georgian refugees will provoke a new conflict, as most of them took an active part in the war against the people of Abkhazia." The MFA has also noted that Georgia is still refusing to sign the non-use of force treaty, which is considered by the Abkhazian party "to be the basis for future discussion of the humanitarian aspects of the conflict," in particular, at the Geneva debates on security and stability in Transcaucasia.