Women from Russia and Georgia looked for solutions to humanitarian problems

On September 6-8, meetings took place in Moscow, where women-peacemakers, activists of the Alliance of Russian and Georgian NGOs, discussed the ways to solve problems in conflict regions, which may be addressed by the public.

The Alliance was found in December 2009 in Tbilisi under initiative of a group of NGOs of Russia and Georgia, which made an attempt, being guided by the desire to restore good neighbourhood relations between the peoples of the two countries, to start a dialogue in the complex conditions of political opposition.

It was already the second meeting of this sort - the first one took place in Tbilisi several months ago. Then, it was decided to hold joint actions in the sphere of culture, to initiate journalistic exchanges, develop economy, education and youth policy at the level of public relations.

The meeting was attended by Svetlana Gannushkina, head of the Committee "Civil Assistance", and Elvira Goryukhina, a journalist from the "Novaya Gazeta". The Georgian party was mainly represented by the women who earlier lived in Abkhazia; they easily supported dialogue with their Russian colleagues; at the same time, some tension and vigilance was felt in their behaviour. They emphasized that it was probably caused by the fact that only negative information about Russia has been spread in Georgia in recent years.

Valentin Gefter, Director of the Russian Institute of Human Rights, who was present at the meeting, said: "There are no prejudices against Georgians in the Russian society, either historical or current; therefore, there are no serious obstacles to cooperation." "For several years already there are no direct contacts at the public level; the youth of both countries practically have no contacts. However, Russia hasn't seen any consciousness offset in relation to Georgians. But Georgians had such an offset in 2008 in relation to Russians because of the conflict," said one of the participants of the meeting.

Alla Gamakhariya, an employee of the cultural-humanitarian fund "Sukhumi", noted that people with Georgian passports, even those who earlier lived in Abkhazia, cannot get there. "Prior to appearance of Russian frontier guards in Abkhazia, those citizens who had Abkhazian registration were let there from Georgia; but now they cannot get to their homeland," she said.

Georgian activists said that the Gali District faces a complicated situation, in particular, with rendering medical aid to the population. Some people cross the border with Georgia just to have their lives saved. In August, there were 13 such persons.

The Georgian participants of the meeting said that the Minister of Public Health of Georgia had ordered to accept such citizens, as he believes that one cannot be forbidden to save his or her life, while bringing a patient to Sukhumi is much longer than to the closest Georgian hospital in Zugdidi. Doctors also have special passes for crossing the border.