Abkhazia denies human rights violations in Georgian-populated district

Apsnypress
1 Sep 06

Sukhumi, 1 September: The Abkhaz president’s representative in Gali
District Ruslan Kishmaria has rejected and described as provocative a
statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia which
says that mass human rights violations are being perpetrated in Gali
District [predominately Georgian district in Abkhazia].

"All of this is being done to provoke the situation in Gali District
and the whole of Abkhazia," Kishmaria told Apsnypress while commenting
on the statement by the Georgian Foreign Ministry’s Press and
Information Department which said that "Sukhumi’s separatist regime
continues to perpetrate gross human rights violations in Abkhazia on a
massive scale".

The Georgian Foreign Ministry’s document reads that "Georgian
residents of Gali District are forced to dig trenches for the
so-called Abkhaz army". Kishmaria said that no one was digging
trenches in Gali District. Work is under way there to restore
fortification buildings in the limited armament zone along the entire
line of the separation of sides, he said.

"Given the actions carried out by official Tbilisi in the upper part
of the Kodori Gorge, we do not rule out that Georgia will go to war
against Abkhazia.

Therefore, we are preparing for the defence and protection of our
state and its independence. Residents of Gali District, alongside any
other residents and citizens of Abkhazia, are participating in this
voluntarily," Kishmaria said.

Commenting on the allegation of forceful conscription of Georgian
youths into the Abkhaz army, Kishmaria said: "There exists such a
state called the republic of Abkhazia. Even though it has not been
recognized by the world community it still has its armed forces in
which all of its citizens over age 18 serve. Anyone who considers
themselves a citizen of the republic of Abkhazia is obliged under the
constitution to pay their duty to their homeland. This applies to the
local Megrelian [ethnic subgroup of Georgians] population of Gali
District as well."

Georgians constitute 3 per cent of the population in Gali, Russians,
Armenians and Abkhaz another 3 per cent, while Megrelians constitute
94 per cent, Kishmaria said.

"Megrelians living in Gali District consider Abkhazia their homeland
and they choose to serve in the armed forces of the republic. Forceful
conscription is out of the question. The Georgian side is trying to
artificially inflate this problem," Kishmaria said.

The joint command of the CIS collective peacekeeping force operating
in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone did not confirm the information
circulated by the Georgian Foreign Ministry’s Press and Information
Department either.

"The Russian peacekeeping force has not registered any gross mass
human rights violations on Abkhaz territory. If there had been such,
the peacekeepers’ command would have known about them, the head of the
press service of the peacekeeping force, Vladimir Anikin, said.

Neither does the UN Human Rights Office in Sukhumi know anything about
"gross and mass human rights violations in Gali District".

"We learnt about this from Georgian media reports and are now
verifying the information. No one has addressed the UN office in
Sukhumi regarding this yet.

No complains have been made," the head of the office, Vladlen
Stefanov, said. Stefanov said he had sent his staff to Gali District
to verify the information circulated by the Georgian Foreign Ministry.