International experts monitor human rights in Abkhazia

In the context of the appeal of the OSCE Chairman to the Office for Democratic Institutes and Human Rights (ODIHR), a group of experts was sent to Abkhazia with a mission to assess the situation with human rights in the conflict zones; the group will work from October 11 to October 25.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learnt about it from the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Abkhazia.

Today in Sukhumi, a meeting took place of the head of the MFA Sergey Shamba with ODIHR representatives Florian Azulai-Khoenberg and Bialyk Pavlo.

Sergey Shamba told the OSCE officials about historical preconditions of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, which in many respects, as he said, was caused by demographic changes in Abkhazia, which had formed the basis for contradictions between the indigenous population and immigrants from Georgia, resulting finally in an open armed opposition.

The Minister has explained in detail the problem of refugees' return, having declared that the Abkhazian party had made all the efforts for successful solution of the problem and practically finished the process in the Gali District. However, as Mr Shamba has stated, at the given stage, it is not obviously possible to discuss the process of return of Georgian refugees to other areas of Abkhazia because of permanent tension and confrontation from the Georgian party.

At the same time, it was noted that the Abkhazian party did not hamper the process of refugees' return to the Gali District and the upper section of the Kodori Gorge, who had been forced to leave their homes as a result of the recent incidents provoked by Georgia.

Let us note here that as a result of the unilateral return of Georgian refugees begun by the authorities of Abkhazia back on March 1, 1999, some 55,000 refugees have already returned to the region, which borders Georgia.