Prime Minister of Georgia Mamuka Bakhtadze has started his keynote address to the participants of the 73rd UN General Assembly in New York yesterday with Abkhazia as 25 years have passed since Tbilisi lost control of Georgia’s western region, currently occupied by Russia.
Hundreds of thousands of Georgians were forced to leave their homes while thousands of people died during the 13 months and 13 days armed conflict.
PM Bakhtadze said that September 27 is one of the most tragical and painful day in Georgia’s history and called on the UN to become more flexible organisation playing an important role in ensuring peace around the world.
“Situation in occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali is equal to a humanitarian catastrophe,” PM Bakhtadze said adding that the regions are being growingly militarised and depopulated with lots of problems in terms of socio-economic situation and human rights protection.
“Due to the situation regarding human rights protection, the number of population in the occupied regions has decreased four or five times. The barbed wire fences split families and destroy the fundamental human rights. The cases of kidnapping, inhuman treatment and torture still occur. Our citizens Archil Tatunashvili, Giga Otkhozoria and 18-years old David Basharuli became the victims of such cases. The list of Otkhozoria-Tatunashvili is based on these cases and includes all the people who should be held accountable for according to the international law” he said.
PM Bakhtadze has also called on Russia to fulfill the ceasefire agreement and withdraw its armed forces from Georgian territories.
“Georgia is trying to use the Geneva talks format actively. Thus our every attempt around the table is being groundlessly confronted by Russia. I want to once again emphasise that the UN efforts are very important for the Geneva talks. Today, in the 21st century when people, nations and cultures are aspiring towards more integration and development, creation of the artificial barriers and wire fences are totally unacceptable,” he said adding that despite the unfair attitude from Russian side Georgia’s only answer to the occupation are going to be peace and the country’s development.
PM Bakhtadze has also spoken about the Government’s initiative – A Step to a Better Future which aims to eliminate humanitarian catastrophe in the occupied territories and protect human rights of the people living there as well as ensure the access on health services and education for them.