GEORGIA MUST PASS LAW ON MESKHETIAN TURKS – COUNCIL OF EUROPE

Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS General Newswire
February 18, 2007 Sunday 8:37 PM MSK

Thomas Hammarberg, the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of
Europe, believes that the Georgian authorities must pass a law on
the repatriation of Meskhetian Turks.

At a Sunday news conference in Tbilisi he said the Georgian authorities
have certain fears that a massive return of Meskhetian Turks may
provoke conflicts with local Armenians. However, he said, they must
assume leadership and explain to the local population that the deported
people have the right to return to their original homeland and that
Stalin’s crime must be amended.

He said that a bill on repatriation exists and he was shown it,
however, its adoption is being dragged out.

Speaking of human rights in Georgia Hammarberg expressed the opinion
that they are mainly violated in conflict zones. He said this applies
to the right to education in one’s native tongue and the position
of refugees which is far from European standards. He said he saw how
refugees live in Zugdidi and that made a depressing impression on him.

He also called the conditions of confinement in Georgian prisons
unbearable.

Hammarberg said he had been told that convicts take turns in sleeping
because prisons are overcrowded and there is far less space per
convict than international norms stipulate.

This week Hammarberg was in Georgia and visited breakaway Abkhazia
and South Ossetia.