Saakashvili Wants International Community to Speak Out

President Saakashvili complained on May 24 about the international community’s silence on continued human rights abuses in Georgia?s breakaway regions.

?Two months ago Georgian books from all the schools in Gagra [a town in breakaway Abkhazia] were publicly burned in the town centre. Where was the international community at that time and why didn’t anyone say anything? If we allow the existence of such an ideology, wherein some one can’t return home just because of ethnic background, it means that not only do we not have a state, but it also means that humankind has a serious problem,? Saakashvili said.

Saakashvili was speaking at an international conference on globalization and dialogue among civilizations, which was opened in Tbilisi on May 24.

In his opening remarks, he also spoke about the importance of tolerance in multiethnic Georgia.

?When I was in opposition, I said it and I’ll say it again and again: for those people, who hate Armenians in Georgia, I will be Armenian; for those who hate Azerbaijanis, I will be Azerbaijani. Recently, someone said I was Ossetian, which I take as a compliment. Of course, it would be a great honour for me to be Jewish,? Saakashvili said.

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