UN General Assembly approves resolution on refugees prepared by Georgia

The General Assembly of the United Nations has approved the new resolution on return of forced migrants back to the breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Georgia has expressed gratitude to those countries whose delegations have supported the resolution. The Russia's MFA, in its turn, finds the very idea of the resolution counterproductive.

On September 7, 50 UN members supported the resolution; 17 countries voted against, and 86 countries refrained. The Russian delegation tried to use the procedure and not to admit the voting, but failed to seek the needed support.

The resolution adopted by the Assembly emphasizes the must to respect the property rights of all internally displaced persons and refugees who suffered from conflicts in Georgia and urges to refrain from buying property in violation of these rights. "The General Assembly hereby confirms the inadmissibility of any violent change of the demographic situation," runs the document.

The General Assembly of the United Nations has also recognized "the right to return belonging to all internally displaced persons and refugees and their descendants, irrespective of their ethnic origin, back to their houses all over the territory of Georgia, including Abkhazia and South Ossetia," the UN News Centre reports.

"The resolution contains a fine formulation - 'violent change of the demographic situation', which is a synonym of ethnic cleansing - just what happened in Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region," Grigol Vashadze, Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, told journalists in Tbilisi.

Ramaz Klimiashvili, an independent political expert from Tbilisi, has treated the adoption of the resolution by the United Nations as "a victory of humanism"; however, he expressed a regret that in fact the approval of the document "changes nothing," since such resolutions "are not binding". He also criticized Georgian authorities, who make loud statements about the importance of the resolution and give forced migrants "a false hope" about their soon return to their homes, the Voice of America reports.

The MFA of Russia believes, in its turn, that sooner or later Georgian leaders will have to accept independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Making comments on the draft resolution on the problem of refugee and temporary displaced persons from Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which was put to voting of the UN General Assembly on September 7 by Georgia, the Russian MFA has noted that "the counter-productivity of another Georgian invention is beyond doubt," the RBC reports.

Alexei Pankin, deputy Russia's permanent representative at the United Nations, is sure that "the resolution will not promote strengthening of trust between the participants of Geneva debates, where situation with refugees is discussed.

Inal Pliev, a South-Ossetian expert, agrees with him and scarifies the position of the UN General Assembly for supporting the Georgian resolution. According to his story, the decision disregards the new state of affairs in the region, developed after the August conflict of 2008.

He has noted that the countries, which had supported the Georgian resolution, are not familiar with the present situation in South Ossetia, as their officials had never visited the territory. "In 1989, in Georgia, 126,000 Ossetians lived outside South Ossetia, and in 2005 - only 36,000. This scandalous change of the demographic situation was never condemned by the United Nations," the "Res" Agency quotes Mr Pliev as saying.