Russia criticizes UN resolution on Abkhazia

Russia criticizes UN resolution on Abkhazia

16.05.2008, 04.34

UNITED NATIONS, May 16 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian representative at the United Nations Ilya Rogachev criticized the resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly on refugees and displaced persons in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict calling it counterproductive, distorting the situation in the breakaway province, and destabilizing UN efforts to promote a comprehensive settlement of the conflict.

“The document imposes a distorted image of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, conceals its history, and considers only certain consequences, but forgets about the reasons of the existing situation,” he told the General Assembly on Thursday commenting on the Georgia-drafted resolution.

“It is clear that the given initiative has been designed by the authors to pressure the Abkhazian side in order to resolve political, but not humanitarian tasks,” Rogachev said.

He recalled that UN High Commissioner for Refugees “made concrete recommendations to the government of Georgia, but they were not fulfilled.”

Rogachev said the return of refugees was an important, but not the sole problem of promoting a comprehensive and lasting settlement of the conflict.

“The draft submitted by the Georgian side actually ‘tears off’ the issue of the return of refugees and displaced persons from the complex of tasks to ensure peace in the region and thus only complicates the solution of the problem.”

The resolution “does not take into account the rights and interests of refugees and displaced persons of Abkhazian, Ossetian and other nationalities, who were displaced and lost their property as a result of bloody conflicts unleashed by Tbilisi in early ‘90s,” according to Rogachev.

“Thus, the adoption of such a selective resolution will further aggravate confrontation in Georgian-Abkhazian relations,” he said.

The representative said the resolution contains selective provisions from resolutions of the UN Security Council, but contains no provisions from the same resolutions, which criticize Georgian authorities.

“No wonder that on such a background the Georgian side did not hold a single open consultation on the draft, while its final text appeared only yesterday (on Wednesday) thus giving the delegations and foreign ministries in our capital cities little time to analyze it thoroughly,” Rogachev said.

He said the resolution was “counterproductive”, as instead of promoting the solution of the problem of refugees it fanned up tensions in the region and raised a new politicized destructive issue in the General Assembly.”