Gaining Back the Lost Trust for the Return of Abkhazia

Gaining Back Lost Trust for the Return of Abkhazia

Non-Governmental Organizations working on a peaceful solution to the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict sent an open letter about transforming the conflict to Georgia's president.   The letter advised the government to end the current political strategy of "Reconcile with me, live with me or I will punish you."According to the NGOs, the Georgian side should offer Abkhazia measures built on priority issues.  For Abkhazia, this would mean ending economic sanctions, restoring communication and rail systems, and making investments for improving the socio-economic conditions of the Abkhazian people.  Experts have already prepared several projects aimed at a peaceful resolution of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict.

The Georgian NGOs, who for nine years have actively worked with Abkhazian colleagues toward a peaceful resolution, sent the open letter to Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili.

The NGOs recommended that the Georgian side make a thorough and comprehensive evaluation of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, including an analysis of the start of the Abkhazian war, the war itself and the state of affairs during 11 years into the conflict.

Perceiving the Georgians as enemies during the war of Gali and Kodori 
in 1992-1993 was caused by policy still in place:  "We are ready to solve the
conflict through peaceful political negotiations, but if this doesn't work,
we'll revert to military force."  

It is necessary that Georgian declare that it will not try to solve the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict using armed forces. The NGOs' letter states:  "The good will of the Georgian side to not use force is of particular importance today when priority is being given to strengthening the country's army. It should be clearly stated that Georgia will never use this strengthened army for the purpose of confronting the Abkhazian people.  Territory may be returned by force, but the problem will remain, moving from generation to generation, and a safe environment will not be created in Abkhazia."

In the opinion of the representatives of the NGOs, the Georgian side should offer Abkhazia a process of dialogue based on priority issues. First, Georgia should show the initiative to end economic sanctions from Abkhazia and thus cancel current "Reconcile with me, live with me or I will punish you" formula. Georgia should take active responsibility for restoring communications and the railway and should invest in Abkhazia, improving the population's socio-economic conditions.

NGOs believe that a peaceful resolution of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict will only have occur if a Georgian-Abkhazian dialogue goes forward as mentioned above, emphasizing the rebuilding of trust.

On January 5th, a proposal concerning the political status of Abkhazia was prepared and discussed at the Institute of Political Science.  The project proposed that Abkhazia be a part of the Georgian federal state; that both Abkhaizian and Georgian be recognized as state languages; that the local Abkhazian government have the right to grant citizenship for the Republic of Abkhazia; that the national currency, the Lari (GEL), be printed in two languages, Georgian and Abkhazian; and other important issues.

Attendees who are representatives of NGOs displaced from Abkhazia regarded the proposal with skepticism.  In their opinion, the proposal would grant so many rights to Abkhazia within the Georgian federal state that implementing the proposal would cause, not a return, but an eventual separation of Abkhazia:  with these increased rights, the Abkhazian government would not actually be accountable to the central government of Georgia.

The proposal prepared by NGOs was also unacceptable to the Georgian Association for Human Rights, which considers the proposal to be anti-Georgian. "In the proposal, Georgian-Abkhazian relations are not considered properly; namely, it states that the Georgians started the war in Abkhazia in 1992 and that we should apologize," said Giorgi Kervalishvili, president of the association.  He added that the war was caused by Shevardnadze's anti-Georgian regime and that the Georgian people should not be held responsible for that.

According to Paata Zakareishvili, one of the proposal's authors, there will be no more complaints if the project is read carefully.  He also said that the Abkhazians make constant reproaches, that the Georgian side does not offer them anything, and that this proposal is just one of the offers the Abkhazians will be obliged to agree to discuss.

Besides the above, Georgian experts also prepared another project, which was presented to the Public Defender's Office on January 11th.  The title of this project was "Activation of Economic Reforms - How to Integrate Abkhazia into a United Georgia," and was initiated by Lasha Tugugshi, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Rezonansi." 

It considers implementing economic projects in the conflict zone, namely Gali and Zugdidi Districts at the administrative border.  It recommends making investments, including of foreign capital, in the zone.  As David Usupashvili, one of the project authors said, it is difficult to predict how the sides will accept this initiative. According to the Vakhtang Khmaladze, another project author, although the proposal was actually presented to the government a long time ago, their response is still unknown.

Prepared by Nino Bestavashvili based on the information of Media News