Hard-Liners Slam Government in Abkhazia

In a statement issued on July 19 the government of breakaway Abkhazia categorically denied all those allegations which were put forward by an influential group of Abkhaz opposition parties organized under the Forum of People?s Unity.

The Forum of People?s Unity appealed on July 14 to the Abkhaz government and President expressing fear over the absence of legal mechanisms, which would guarantee local Abkhazians participation in the privatization process which has started in the breakaway region.

?Lack of these kinds of legal mechanisms might lead to a situation, wherein all the economic levers will fall under the ownership of foreign investors and there is no guarantee that the [privatized] facilities will be transferred into Georgians? ownership,? the Abkhaz opposition parties’ appeal reads.

The opposition parties also accused the government of inactivity, which allowed, as they put it, for a ?spontaneous return of Georgian refugees? to Abkhazia. The opposition claims that there have even been cases when the a ruling by the Abkhaz court has enabled some Georgian internally displaced persons to return to the houses they lived in before the armed conflict in the early 90s.

The Forum of People?s Unity also spoke against granting Abkhaz citizenship to those ethnic Georgians who have spontaneously returned to Gali district of Abkhazia.

In response, the Abkhaz government stated that the authorities will not undertake measures which might undermine the unrecognized republic?s security and called on the opposition parties for cooperation and open dialogue.

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