Mikheil Saakashvili either Holds False Information on “Sorry” Campaign or Tells Lies Deliberately

The Statement of the Human Rights Centre (HRIDC)

The Human Rights Centre started “Sorry” Campaign in March of 2007 which aimed to restore the confidence between Abkhazian and Georgian peoples by recognizing past mistakes and by forgiving everything to each other.

The campaign is focused on civil society from Abkhazian and Georgian side. The principal message of the campaign is to resolve conflict peacefully.

On November 28 as a part of his pre-election campaign former president Mikheil Saakashvili met IDPs and talking with them he stated that there are some organizations in Georgia who try to apologize to Abkhazian people in order to receive a large grant.

“Why should we have to apologize for having expelled us from there and for having cut our heads? For having destroyed Georgian cultural monuments or for having frozen our children in mountain pass and having shot our airplanes down? And after all these should we excuse? Who are those people and which international organization do they represent? What grant have they received for similar nonsense?”- said the president.

As the abovementioned campaign is implemented only by the Human Rights Centre, we suppose that the statement was directed to us and to our campaign.

We should clarify that “Sorry” Campaign does not mean that Georgian people should apologize to criminals. The “Sorry” is the first step for our reconciliation. We are “Sorry” for having failed to stop the war and for not having resisted the up-coming disaster. Thus both sides are responsible for the situation.

The Human Rights Centre considered that the launch of the campaign was crucial because the representatives of the society and the government are too radical and blame only Abkhazian side for the situation. In our opinion both sides made mistakes and these mistakes should be recognized by the parties if they are willing to end the conflict. It is necessary to start a dialogue and stop military policy-this is the position of our organization.

Herewith it should be motioned that the organization implements the campaign without any grants and funding. Thus Human Rights Centre holds only the events which do not require financial resources.
 
Considering the ongoing situation in Georgia the statement of Ex-president and current presidential candidate is considered as an indirect threat or pressure on the organization which has been covering the facts of human rights violation in Georgia for many years and demanded appropriate reactions on them.

In addition to that, it is an attempt to make wrong interpretation of the campaign and hamper all the activities promoting peaceful resolution of the conflict. The criticizing of peaceful activities makes such an impression that the government prefers military way for conflict resolution. But they forget that we have to return not only territories but Abkhazian people as well.

Human Rights Centre considers that any attempt or call for resolving conflicts through the military way is unacceptable. And Georgian society should not agree with it.