An even-handed solution to inter-minority conflict Autonomous status for Abkhazia – unification of the Ossetias – proportionate representation for all minorities – implementation of the Steinmeier peace initiative for the return of refugees

Bloody minority conflicts in various parts of the world have been defused or permanently resolved through proportionate representation, the repatriation of refugees and the granting of autonomous status and occasionally full independence.

Tilman Zülch, General Secretary of Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker / Society for Threatened Peoples today urged the German Federal Government to press forward with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s exemplary peace initiative and his „three-stage plan“, submitted to the Russian authorities on 18 July this year, which provides for the return of Georgian refugees to Abkhazia.

Provoked by Georgian discrimination against minorities and exploited by Russia, separatist uprisings in Abkhazia and South Ossetia have led to a mass exodus of the Georgian population. In 1989, shortly before the disintegration of the USSR, the population of Abkhazia was 525,000, only 93,000 of whom were Abkhaz. Georgians numbered 240,000 and the other nationalities represented included Armenians (77,000), Greeks (15,000) and Russians (75,000). During the Russian-backed Abkhaz rebellion of 1992 most of the Georgian population was expelled. As many as 7,000 Georgians, including the Georgian members of Abkhazia’s regional government, were killed during the ethnic cleansing of the Abkhaz capital, Sukhumi.

In 1989 the population of South Ossetia numbered 99,000 – 65,000 Ossetians (66.2%), 29,000 Georgians (28.9%), 2,000 Russians (2.1%), 1,000 Armenians (1%), 400 Jews (0.4%) and 1,200 „others“ (1.2%). In the course of the armed conflicts between South Ossetians and Georgians in 1991/92 and most recently following the attack by Georgian forces in August 2008 the majority of South Ossetia’s Georgian population have been expelled or fled their homes. Hundreds of residents of the capital, Tskhinvali, were killed and large areas of the town destroyed in the recent Georgian military offensive.

Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker is proposing that Russian North Ossetia should eventually be united with South Ossetia (which under international law belongs to Georgia), with Georgia and Russia acting as guarantors of the union’s independent status. Non-Ossetian nationalities, including the Georgian returnees, should be guaranteed equal status in government and public life under a system of proportional representation based on the model of South Tyrol.

Following the return of its Georgian majority Abkhazia should be granted autonomous status within Georgia, with the rights of the different nationalities in Abkhazia guaranteed by proportional representation. The number of Georgian expulsees is currently estimated at approximately 250,000.