OSCE PA Special Representative Concludes Georgia Visit

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Special Representative on the South Caucasus, Kristian Vigenin, was on his two-day visit to Georgia on September 27-28, where he met the country’s leaders and discussed the humanitarian situation in Georgia’s Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions.

In Tbilisi, the Special Representative met with senior officials including Parliamentary Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze, Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze, Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, Head of the Government’s Human Rights Secretariat Natalia Jaliashvili, members of the Georgian parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and OSCE PA delegation, as well as all parliamentary political parties and representatives of civil society organizations.

In addition, Vigenin met with internally displaced persons from Abkhazia and South Ossetia, visiting several communal housing facilities. He also met with officials from the European Union’s Monitoring Mission and accompanied a patrol by the mission to the occupation line near village Odzisi.

“The conflicts here in Georgia continue to have painful consequences for many thousands of people,” said Vigenin, adding that “steps such as the closing of checkpoints on the administrative boundary lines and removing tuition in people’s native languages have real and lasting negative impacts on the lives of people in the region.”

“On humanitarian grounds, I hope that such steps will be discontinued so that people can go about their daily lives … The more that obstacles to daily life and neighborly contact are put in place, the more development across this region will be delayed and the people will suffer. Regular human level contacts can be a powerful positive force for reconciliation,” he also said.

Following his meetings with political party representatives, Vigenin commented on the ongoing constitutional reform process as well, and encouraged all political forces to work for broader political consensus. “It is up to the Georgian people to decide on how the country should be governed, and I hope that broad agreement can be reached in the interests of long-term stability,” he noted.

The visit to Georgia follows meetings earlier this week in Azerbaijan. From Georgia, Vigenin travelled to Armenia to complete his South Caucasus visit. He will report on the regional visit to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Standing Committee on October 4, and will outline concrete proposals for future engagement in the region.