NGOs hold training on issue of regional conflicts for Tbilisi residents

Activists of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have held a training session in Tbilisi for local residents, during which they told about the origins of the conflict of Georgia with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and about the methods of settling such conflicts in the world. The participants of the meeting expressed the view about the need of forming a public order on this issue.

The training session on the topic: "Restoring Trust on National and Regional Levels" within the project "Training Courses on Georgian-South-Ossetian Conflict", funded by the OSCE, was held on February 8 by the NGOs "Multinational Georgia" and the "Human Rights Centre".

"The main point in our project is to promote the formation in people of a conscious attitude to the parties in conflict and prospects to settle it. We would like to inform that we are all humans; and, therefore, the solution must be worked out on the basis of mutual respect," said Zurab Bendinishvili, the head of the NGO "Civil Forum".

Ivo Badzagua, a specialist of the Georgian NGO "Centre for Studying Post-Soviet Space", has presented the method "Infrastructure for Peace", developed by the eponymous international network of peacemaking NGOs. He explained new approaches to conflict settlement.

The trainees expressed their interest in this methodology and their willingness to use it in drafting projects and contacts with residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.