Abkhaz President-Elect Comments on Georgian IDPs
In an interview with the Moscow based Echo Moskvy radio station on January 27 President of breakaway Abkhazia Sergey Bagapsh said that the Georgian internally displaced persons who were forced to flee Abkhazia as a result of the 1992-93 war are gradually returning to the region; however he added that the Abkhaz side ?strictly controls? the movement of people through the Abkhazian territory.
He also said that the Georgian authorities, who launched the bloody conflict in Abkhazia in the early 90s, are to blame for driving out hundreds of thousands of ethnic Georgians from Abkhazia.
?As for the return of refugees, we have already launched this process. Around 60,000 Georgian refugees have returned to the Gali district [of Abkhazia, was a predominantly Georgian-populated region, even before the war]. And I want to inform you that the ethnic Georgian population might be slightly fewer than ethnic Abkhazians in all the districts of Abkhazia? But we strictly control the movement of people through our territory, because of the sabotage and a terrorism threat,? Sergey Bagapsh said.
This statement reflects a slightly softened position for Sergey Bagapsh regarding the return of IDPs. On January 25, Itar-Tass news agency reported quoting Bagapsh as saying that the ?return of the Georgian displaced persons, who fled Abkhazia during the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict, is impossible.?
