UK: ‘increased Russian interference led to sharp deterioration in human rights’ in Georgia's occupied regions
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The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office report for 2019 says that increased Russian interference has led to a sharp deterioration in the human rights situation in the two Russian-occupied regions of Georgia-Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia).
The report says that ‘continued closure of the majority of crossing points’ along the occupation line raised tensions and resulted in frequent detentions and severe restrictions on freedom of movement, affecting livelihoods, education, and access to healthcare.
Discrimination against ethnic Georgians and intimidation of members of civil society continued. The UK supported Georgian resolutions at the UN General Assembly on internally displaced persons and at the UN Human Rights Council requesting access for the Office of the UN High Representative for Human Rights,” said the report.
The report reads that the de facto authorities in Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia passed a law in April that would re-introduce the death penalty from January 2020.
Russia says it is concerned by the ‘more frequent and provocative statements and actions of Georgia’ towards currently occupied Tskhinvali and Abkhazia regions of Georgia, and accuses the US Department of State and the US Embassy in Georgia of ‘provocative activities.’
The US Department of State has condemned Russia's redoubled efforts of ‘borderisation’ amid pandemic.
Russian occupying forces have resumed ‘borderisation’ activities on the territory of the villages of Pakhulani and Saberio, near the Russian-occupied region of Abkhazia. The State Security Service of Georgia reported today that the occupying forces are changing the existing barbed wire fences and installing additional illegal installations on the ground.
The International Crisis Group has published a report on the COVID-19 challenges in six ‘post-Soviet breakaway statelets’, including in Georgia’s Russian-occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia).
The EU delegation to Georgia has responded to the 12th anniversary of the Russia-Georgia war, stating that Russia continues its illegal presence on the Georgian territory and that the EU’s commitment to a peaceful resolution of the conflicts in Georgia ‘remains as strong as ever’.“Unfortunately, tensions have remained high over recent months and the Russian military presence in both Abkhazia and South Ossetia continues in violation of international law and commitments undertaken under the 12 August 2008 agreement,” said the statement released by the EU delegation to Georgia earlier today.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a bill proposed by the country’s Foreign Ministry ‘to resolve dual citizenship issues’ with Georgia’s occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region. The agreement, which was signed for a lenght of five years and which will automatically prolong after the expiration of the term, offers simplified procedures for obtaining Russian citizenship and dual citizenship for the residents of Georgia’s occupied Tskhinvali region.