Georgia: Decree on the repatriation of deported Meskhs
Date: Mon, 12 May 97 22:06:50 -0500
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
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Subject: Georgia: Decree on the repatriation of deported Meskhs
From: MINELRES moderator \ Internet: ([email protected])
Original sender: HR Center of Azerbaijan \ Internet: (eldar@hrcenter.
baku.az)
The problem of Muslim Meskhs in Georgia by the end of 1996
By Paata Zakareishvili, Tbilisi
On December 9, 1996 the Decree #802 of the President of Georgia "On the
State Program of Solving Legal and Social Problems of Meskhs, Deported and
Repatriated to Georgia" was issued. This decree ratifies a program,
presented by a committee, working on the State policy of solving legal and
social problems of Meskhs, deported and repatriated to Georgia. According
to this decree, the Governmental Committee on Realization of the State
Program of Solving Legal and Social Problems of Meskhs, Deported and
Repatriated to Georgia was created. It consists of 20 members. The Minister
of Refugees and Relocation Valeri Vashakidze was appointed Head of the
Committee. According to the decree a standing working team attached to the
Committee is to be created. Analogous committees, headed by the
President's representatives, are to be created at the locals. They will
carry out and systematically control measures, envisaged by the Program.
The committee of the same kind is to be created in Autonomous Republic of
Adjaria, and, after the territorial integrity of Georgia will be restored,
in Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region.
The text of the State Program of Solving Legal and Social Problems of
Meskhs, Deported and Repatriated to Georgia is enclosed with the decree.
The Program consists of preamble and four chapters.
Preamble:
According to the Resolution N6279 of the State Committee on Defense of
the USSR dated by July 31, 1944, part of the population of Southern Georgia
(particularly Samtskhe-Javakheti), among them Georgians, became victims of
political repression and were evicted. The ethnocide of the evicted
Georgians by means of deportation was carried out by the regime which
existed at that time in the USSR, because Soviet Socialist Republic of
Georgia had no real state sovereignty.
The independent democratic Georgia sets itself to rehabilitate the
violated rights of these people by means of repatriation and gradually
eradicate the results of the ethnocide. For the repatriates this includes:
- giving them the citizenship of Georgia;
- restoring their nationality and surname;
- granting them economical privileges and providing social protection
according to the existing legislation;
- assisting the process of their adaptation and re-integration. Georgia
begins to solve legal and social problems of Meskhs, deported and
repatriated to Georgia, taking in consideration it's own national interests
and according to the internationally appreciated norms of Humane Law.
Taking in consideration political, social and economical situation in
Georgia, the repatriation seems to be a long process. It is based on
several main conditions:
the repatriation will be phased according to the existing
infrastructure of the relocation;
the repatriation will be voluntary;
the first stage of the repatriation will include 1997-2000 years and
it is planned that about 5000 people will come back to their native country
, among them 15% in 1997, 20% - in 1998, 25% - in 1999, 35% - in 2000.
These indicators will be amplified by the Georgian Parliament during the
establishment of annual immigration quotas. The quota will not include
families of repatriates, living outside of Georgia, who were forced to
leave the country in 1988-1991.
Sources of financing
The State Budget of Georgia;
budgets of territorial units of Georgia;
State credits;
financing by international organizations;
financing received according to agreements between Georgia and interested
parties;
own facilities of the repatriates;
donations.
The Governmental Committee is charged to control the financing and expenses
of the repatriation.
Protection of the legal rights of the repatriates
To present to the Government the draft Law on Rehabilitation of Victims of
Political Repression and Restoration of Justice.
Executor - the Ministry of Justice of Georgia.
Implementation period - year 1996.
To present to the Parliament the draft Resolution on Repatriation of
deported Meskhs.
Executor - Georgian Ministry of Refugees and Relocation.
Implementation period - I quarter of 1997.
To work out the draft decree of the President of Georgia "on Solving Legal
and Social Problems of Meskhs, Deported and Repatriated to Georgia"
Executor - Georgian Ministry of Refugees and Relocation.
Implementation period - I quarter of 1997.
To realize the first item of the Order N106 of the Head of State, dated by
May 18, 1993 concerning the agreements with proper interested parties.
Executor - the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia
Implementation period - years 1997-1998
To provide safety of the repatriates during the process of repatriation and
in places of relocation and to make necessary preparations.
Executor - the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia.
Implementation period - years 1997-2000.
Relocation of the repatriates
To work out and to realise a program of relocation of the repatriates in
1997-2000
Executors - Georgian Ministry of Urbanization and Construction; the
Department of Land Resources and Land-survey of the Ministry of Food and
Agriculture; the Ministry of State Security; the Ministry of Internal
Affairs; the State Department for State Frontier Defence; the Ministry of
Refugees and Relocation; the Local Government and Regional Policy
Coordinative Service of the State Chancellery. Implementation period - years
1997-2000.
To draw up and to realize a plan of purchasing flats or dwelling houses by
the repatriates by their own money.
Executors - the Ministry of Refugees and Relocation; the Local
Government and Regional Policy Coordinative Service of the State Chancellery
.
Implementation period - years 1997-2000.
To draw up a plan of building dwelling houses by the repatriates by their
own money and to realise it according to the relocation program.
Executors - the Ministry of Urbanization and Construction; the
Ministry of Refugees and Relocation; the Local Government and Regional
Policy Coordinative Service of the State Chancellery. Implementation
period - years 1997-2000.
Protection of social rights of the repatriates
To work out a system of social benefits.
To solve problems of pension guaranteeing.
To take into consideration professional level of the repatriates, especially
youth, for unified system of training and re-training specialists.
To include the contingent of repatriates in State and regional employment
programs.
To study health conditions of the repatriates and to establish for them
corresponding privileges according to the existing legislation.
To provide the adaptation centre with building and necessary equipment.
To work out adaptation programs, among them special youth program and to
carry out their methodological guidance.
To prepare the public opinion for the process of repatriation and to
provide reporting by mass media on the carrying out of the program.
Executors - the Ministry of Social Security, Labour and Employment;
the Ministry of Education; the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of
Defence, the State Department of the Youth
Problems; the Ministry of Health; the Ministry of Refugees and Relocation
; the State Corporation of Television and Radio Broadcasting; the Academy
of Science of Georgia.
Implementation period - years 1997-2000.
To recruit Georgian and foreign governmental and non-governmetal
organizations to take part in the realization of the program.
Executor - the Ministry of Refugees and Relocation
Implementation period - years 1997-2000
The Ministry of Refugees and Relocation is charged to control and to
coordinate realization of the program.
The Governmental Committee is responsible for carrying out of the program.
Chairman of the Committee reports to the President of Georgia twice a year
on sessions of the government.
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