Georgian press digest
Reply-To: [email protected]
Sender: [email protected]
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 14:08:43 +0200 (EET)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: Georgian press digest
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy and
Development (CIPDD) <[email protected]>
Georgian press digest
ANNOTATED DAILY HEADLINES OF THE GEORGIAN PRESS
Compiled by the Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy and
Development (CIPDD)
Text: Tamara Shamil
English version: Guram Dumbadze
Editor: Emil Adelkhanov-Steinberg
January 21, 1999
1. ASLAN ABASHIDZE ACCUSED THE FRONTIER DEPARTMENT OF COLLECTING
SECRET INFORMATION
At his January 20 press conference Aslan Abashidze, the Adjarian
leader, accused the State Department of Frontier Defence and its
chairman Valeri Chkheidze of collecting secret information in Adjaria.
The CIS countries, he said, had agreed to abstain from collecting such
data about each other. He claims to have a document which proves that
some forces are going to break stability in Adjaria. In his opinion,
the forthcoming withdrawal of the Russian frontier troops from Georgia
(stipulated by a Russian-Georgian agreement) aims to create a "fifth
column" in the autonomy.
Zviad Pochkhua. "Resonance" No. 16, January 21, pp. 1, 2
2. ARDZINBA GUARANTEES PERMANENT RESIDENCE IN GALI ONLY TO THOSE WHO
HAVE NOT FOUGHT AGAINST ABKHAZIA
Vladislav Ardzinba, the Abkhaz leader, is going to begin repatriation
of the IDPs to the Gali district of Abkhazia on March 1. He promised
them normal living conditions and guaranteed their safety, adding,
however, that those who "want the Georgian jurisdiction to extend over
the newly independent state" and those who have fought against
Abkhazia had better stay in Georgia. In his words, 25 thousand
refugees have already returned to the Gali district and every second
passed registration at local administration agencies.
BS-Press news agency. "Resonance" No. 16, January 21, p. 2
3. DEPORTED MESKHETIAN BROUGHT AN ACTION AGAINST DEPUTY HEAD OF
PRESIDENT'S OFFICE
According to Guram Mamulia, the head of the State service for
repatriation, a law on rehabilitation of those deported from Georgia
in Stalin's time has been already developed and is going to be
submitted to experts of the European Union. The law is supposed to
solve the problem of Muslim Meskhetians which remains unsettled,
despite Shevardnadze's decree which says that 5,000 Muslim Meskhetians
are to be repatriated by 2000. To date, only 12 Muslim Meskhetians
have got the Georgian citizenship and all of them did it with great
difficulties. Mamuka Khutsishvili applied for the citizenship more
than one year ago, having a letter of recommendation from the Ministry
of Justice, but Tamaz Qipiani, deputy head of the president's office,
has been dragging his feet, so the documents are still unready for the
presidential approval. Khutsishvili has brought an action against
Qipiani, but the latter refuses to appear before the court.
George Gudjabidze. "Resonance" No. 16, January 21, p. 4
4. WE ARE RESCUED...ARE WE RESCUED?
The newspaper censures those politicians and public figures who raised
against the recently adopted law removing the ethnicity item from the
Georgian citizen's ID. In the newspaper's opinion, emphasising the
Georgian ethnicity as a privileged one, they play on "vile
nationalistic instincts" in order to secure their "cheep popularity"
and "suspicious political career". The newspaper also criticises the
President who has recently declared that maybe he will have to veto
the law.
Teimuraz Koridze. "Droni" No. 6, January 21-23, p. 5
5. MASS ACTIONS OF IDPs FROM ABKHAZIA
Yesterday, 26 political parties and organisations of Abkhazia
(functioning in Georgia) held rallies outside the foreign embassies in
Tbilisi, demanding to support Georgia's proposals at the forthcoming
sitting of the UN Security Council (January 31) which is supposed to
adopt a resolution on Abkhazia. The participants required that the
resolution must define the recent events in Abkhazia as genocide of
the Georgian population. They submitted the British Ambassador
materials exposing the Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia and had a
meeting with the Second Secretary of the US embassy.
Iprinda news agency. "Dilis Gazeti" No. 10, January 21, p. 5
--
==============================================================
MINELRES - a forum for discussion on minorities in Central&Eastern
Europe
Submissions: [email protected]
Subscription/inquiries: [email protected]
List archive: http://www.riga.lv/minelres/archive.htm
==============================================================