MINELRES: Fwd: Georgia: the parliamentary debate on the draft language bill postoned

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Original sender: Emil Adelkhanov <emil-ade@cipdd.org>

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Subject: RFE/RL Caucasus Report Vol. 5, No. 18, 23 May 2002

RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL Caucasus Report
Vol. 5, No. 18, 23 May 2002

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GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT SHELVES DEBATE ON LANGUAGE LAW. At the request of
parliament Deputy Guram Sharadze, who is notorious for his nationalist
sentiments, the Georgian parliament on 17 May postponed indefinitely
further debate on the draft language bill. Sharadze protested that
amendments made to that bill after its initial discussion in
parliamentary committees are unconstitutional and contrary to
Georgia's national interests. He added that President Eduard
Shevardnadze personally was responsible for two of those amendments,
which he described as "a time bomb." He did not elaborate.
In April 2001, and again in June, Shevardnadze urged the government to
speed up work on the language law, which first got under way in 1997.
He said the day of its adoption by parliament will be "a historic one"
for Georgia. Shevardnadze approved the draft bill in July, after which
the parliament began discussing it. But the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) apparently objected to some
provisions of the bill, specifically the requirement that all clerical
work and record-keeping at government offices at all levels be
conducted exclusively in Georgian. That requirement is currently
impossible to implement in at least two regions of the country: the
districts southeast of Tbilisi where the population is predominantly
Azerbaijani, and Djavakheti on the border with Armenia, the
predominantly Armenian population of which mainly speaks Armenian and
Russian but not Georgian.
Members of the minorities in question also made clear their objections
to the draft bill at a meeting in late December with parliament
Speaker Nino Burdjanadze. (The participants at that meeting
communicated in Russian as their only common language.) Burdjanadze
assured them that the bill is part of Georgian authorities' measures
to create "a normal civil society" and that their objections to it
will be taken into account.
At the OSCE's recommendation, the bill was amended to provide for the
use of languages of minorities resident in Georgia in local councils
in districts where such minorities constitute the majority of the
population. A representative for OSCE High Commissioner on National
Minorities Rolf Ekeus told the Georgian parliament in April that
amendment was intended to prevent the aggravation of relations between
Georgia's various ethnic groups.
The OSCE further undertook to fund Georgian language programs for
residents of those districts. Gela Kvaratskhelia, chairman of the
Committee on Civic Integration, told journalists in Tbilisi in April
that the OSCE has provided funds to provide 250 Armenian officials
from Djavakheti with language training at 17 specially established
teaching centers. A similar program is envisaged for Georgia's
Azerbaijanis. (Liz Fuller)

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