Public Defender’s Special Report on Human Rights in Conflict Affected Regions

Lado Bichashvili, Shida Kartli

Public Defender’s adviser in conflict regions visited several IDP compact settlements and villages adjacent to occupied territories in Shida Kartli; she listened to problems of local people.

Media Turashvili met representatives of local media and nongovernmental organizations in Gori Civic Engagement Center. The discussion was about problems she heard in the villages on the ABL and IDP settlements. Medea Turashvili called on the local government, NGOs and media to cooperate with the Public Defender’s Office.

Humanrights.ge interviewed Public Defender’s Adviser on Human Rights Issues in Conflict Regions Medea Turashvili.

-Your service was recently created within the Public Defender’s Office and now you are visiting one of the conflict regions. What problems did you observe on the ground and how do you see ways for their solution?

-Conflict affected population have plenty of problems. Today we visited several villages and IDP settlements. Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili also intends to visit war affected villages and meet local population. They mostly complain about social and economic problems related with water, land, gasification and other issues. Several people said their status of socially indigent person was removed unfairly. We intend to study their problems. Many people apply to the Public Defender’s Office (PDO) with similar complaints. When the problem refers to IDPs and residents of the borderline, the problem is more acute and we want to study all concrete cases. 

-Will you prepare special recommendations for governmental institutions based on your findings or will they be reflected in the Public Defender’s Annual Report?

-Public Defender’s Report will be published very soon and information we collected here will not be reflected in it due to limited time. However, we plan to prepare special report on the situation in conflict affected regions and it will be ready in five months; it will include recommendations to the governmental institutions too. 

-Although Ombudsman’s office is state institution, unlike other governmental agencies, it has more trust in the population. What will be form of your involvement in Georgian-Ossetian conflict regulation and confidence building process? Will you cooperate with state institutions or you will work in separate format and try to start dialogue directly with Ossetian society?

-Our department was created short time ago and we are thinking about format to contact Ossetian society, NGOs and Tskhinvali de-facto Public Defender just now.  First of all, we think to study human rights situation there. We will start from the collection of information and in future human rights situation in Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region might also be reflected in the Public Defender’s Annual Reports. In parallel to that, we will cooperate with Georgian state institutions, who work in the field. We wish to bring state policy about conflict regions closer to our population. It refers to both Geneva Negotiations and meetings in the frame of Early Response and Incident Prevention Mechanism. We will inform society about ongoing processes. We want to participate in the negotiations, particularly in the frame of Early Response and Incident Prevention Mechanism.

-What will be your status – observer or active participant of the negotiations?

-It is issue of format and agreement. We work in this direction because it is very problematic issue which does not depend only on Georgian party. We should take positions of Ossetian and Russian parties into consideration. We are looking for compromises. However, we plan to make Public Defender’s representation more active.

-Family members of three young Ossetian people, missing since October 13, 2008, applied to the Human Rights Center for help. They claim their sons were detained near Mereti village and then taken to Gldani prison in Tbilisi. But now, five years later, representatives of the Analytic Department of the MIA claim they have no information about the missing people. Their detention and placement in penitentiary establishments is not recorded in any official documents. Prosecutor’s office is investigating the case…

-Our office also received the same application and we started quest into the case. I agree with you, state institutions replied to us that they have no information about these people. Besides that, there are Georgian prisoners in Tskhinvali prisons and Ossetian prisoners are in Georgian establishments. Public Defender’s position is to release those prisoners, or exchange them that will promote Georgian-Ossetian relation and confidence-building process. 

We would like to mention case of two women from Tskhinvali, who are in Georgian prisons. They are convicted under a very grave article and it will be a step forward if they will be pardoned by Georgian authority. We had meetings with the MIA, with State Minister for Reconciliation Paata Zakareishvili and continue work in this direction. It is working process and dragged out in time. It is complicated case connected with Gori terrorist act that is very sensitive case both for Georgian and Ossetian parties.

We wish to have direct contact with civil society representatives and NGOs. We plan to participate in Georgian-Ossetian ongoing dialogue together with NGOs and civil society groups. We need some time from the beginning to establish contacts; it is not easy to start cross-border cooperation when borders are locked, but we already work on it.