Georgian president regards ethnic minorities as assets

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Subject: Georgian president regards ethnic minorities as assets

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Felix Corley <[email protected]>

Georgian president regards ethnic minorities as assets


BBC Worldwide Monitoring

Kavkasia-Press, Tbilisi, 15 May 99

Text of report by Georgian news agency Kavkasia-Press

Tbilisi, 15th May: "We will continue to be attentive towards ethnic
minorities residing in Georgia, for we perceive them as our assets and
our achievement," the letter addressed by Georgian President Eduard
Shevardnadze to the participants of a conference "Ethnic minorities in
the Caucasus at the threshold of the 21st century" says. The
conference has been organized by the British nongovernmental
organization Caucasus Links. The conference will last two days. Among
the issues to be discussed on 16th May, there are the definition of an
ethnic minority; the problems of ethnic minorities in the context of
the protection of human rights; the world community and a settlement
of the problems of ethnic minorities, and others.  The conference is
being attended by representatives of international organizations,
diplomatic missions accredited to Georgia, Georgian human rights
organizations, and representatives of South Ossetia.

The Georgian president's address was read out by the chairman of the
parliamentary Committee for Ethnic Minorities, Konstantine Kokoev.

In his address, the Georgian president welcomed the event and
expressed the hope that a serious step would be taken at the
conference towards a realistic definition of the status of ethnic
minorities.

Chairman of the Georgian Parliament Zurab Zhvania is taking part in
the conference.  He said in his speech that there had not been any
ethnic conflicts in Georgia for millennia, but the country had gained
practical experience over the past decade.  The Georgian nation has
conflicts with the people with whom they have lived side by side for
years.  "We are obliged to analyse the experience of the past decade
because it is time we named the real causes of the conflicts," Zurab
Zhvania said.

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