UN’s Ban Ki Moon concerned by Russia’s ongoing occupation of Georgia
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The United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is concerned by reports of continued "borderisation” along the Administrative Boundary Lines between two Russian-occupied Georgian regions – Abkhazia and South Ossetia – and the rest of Georgia.
The concern was voiced by the Secretary General’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric at a press briefing yesterday, August 12, on the seventh anniversary of the signing of the six-point ceasefire agreement following the RussiaâGeorgia war in 2008.
Dujarric said the UN Secretary General once again urged all relevant actors to continue to use existing mechanisms to discuss issues of concern and solve the ongoing struggle.
"From the very beginning of the conflict, the UN was actively engaged in calling for a quick cessation of hostilities, which culminated in the signing of the six-point ceasefire agreement on 12 August 2008,” said the UN Spokesperson.
"The United Nations remains firmly committed to the Geneva International Discussions, otherwise known as the GID, which are jointly co-chaired by the United Nations, the European Union (EU) and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which started following the signing of the ceasefire agreement.”
He noted the GID remained the only platform recognised by all participants to address the issues stemming from the conflict.
Dujarric’s press briefing was followed by a speech from Georgia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Kaha Imnadze.
Imnadze said Russia did not fulfill its obligations under the ceasefire agreement and he called on the international society to continue putting pressure on Russia to stop Georgia’s creeping occupation.
"Seven years have passed. Today 20 percent of the territory of my country remains under illegal Russian occupation,” the Georgian Ambassador said.
"[This] results in mass violation of fundamental human rights of the local population and hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced people are deprived of their right of peaceful and dignified return to the places of their permanent residence.”
Click here to listen to the full description of the situation at the conflict zone by Ambassador Imnadze.
During the past several weeks Russia advanced more than two kilometres into Georgian territory; Russia’s occupation forces installed new barbed wire fences and signposts marking so-called new ‘border’ through Georgian villages.
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Russia has advanced its creeping occupation into Georgian territory, resulting in a portion of the BP-operated Baku–Supsa Pipeline now under Russian control in the breakaway Tskinvali region (South Ossetia).
The situation along the administrative boundary line of Georgia's breakaway region of Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) today became tense after seven armed people in military uniform removed the Georgian flag away from the so-called border.
As the clock strikes midnight tonight, Georgia will mark the seventh anniversary of Russia’s aggression and occupation of the territories of a sovereign, independent state.
Georgia’s Parliament Speaker David Usupashvili is set to pay a working visit to the United States (US).
Forty-six member states of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) have signed a joint declaration about the "difficult situation” in Georgia’s two occupied regions.