Georgian Reconciliation Minister meets families of persons missing following armed conflicts
Search procedures for the missing, and the importance of ensuring their effectiveness were highlighted in the meeting, with Akhvlediani also reviewing the transformation of the search programme initiated by the International Red Cross Committee. Photo from the Reconciliaton Ministry's Facebook
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Tea Akhvlediani, the Georgian State Minister for Reconciliation and Civil Equality, on Monday has met with families of persons missing as a result of military conflicts in the 1990s and the 2008 war with Russia.
Headed by Akhvlediani, the meeting in Georgia’s western city of Kutaisi involved over 40 families of missing individuals living in the Imereti and Racha regions in the country’s west, the Ministry said.
Search procedures for the missing, and the importance of ensuring their effectiveness were highlighted in the meeting, with Akhvlediani also reviewing the transformation of the search programme initiated by the International Red Cross Committee.
A meeting in the country’s Black Sea city of Batumi, headed by Deputy Minister Shota Rekhviashvili, also discussed the topic with 20 families of persons considered missing in western regions of Adjara and Guria.
Involvement of Georgian authorities and agencies in the efforts, and “further intensive cooperation and coordinated activities” with the ICRC in implementing the programme were highlighted at the meeting.
Akhvlediani said ensuring “further sustainability” of the search process and increasing the “results and effectiveness” was “one of the priorities” of her Ministry.
[The families] had the opportunity to be introduced in detail to the progress of the programme together with the ICRC, results of ongoing activities and the progress achieved [in the process]”, the official added.
The Georgian Government created a commission in 2019 to find burial sites and identify bodies of individuals who went missing during the conflicts.
Aspects of the cooperation between Georgia and the International Committee of the Red Cross were discussed on Wednesday in a meeting between the Georgian Minister for Reconciliation and Civil Equality Tea Akhvlediani and Agnes Coutou, the Red Cross Envoy on Missing Persons in the Caucasus.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and the members of his Government on Wednesday paid tribute to nine Georgian heroes who went missing during the 1992-93 armed conflict in Georgia’s Russia-occupied region of Abkhazia and whose remains had been transferred from the occupied region.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, together with the members of the Government, on Wednesday paid tribute to eleven heroes, whose remains have been transferred from Georgia’s Russian-occupied Abkhazia region, with the public funeral held at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi.
The remains of 13 individuals who went missing during the 1992-93 armed conflict in Georgia’s Russia-occupied region of Abkhazia have been laid to rest. The bodies of six servicemen and seven civilians were identified through the cooperation of Georgia’s State Ministry for Reconciliation and the International Red Cross Committee.
Georgian officials, members of domestic civil society groups and international organisations on Tuesday discussed the Russian occupation of two of the country’s regions and related issues at an information meeting hosted by the office of the Georgian State Ministry for Reconciliation and Civil Equality with the support of the United Nations Women organisation.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili and representatives of the Government on Wednesday paid tribute to 20 heroes, whose remains were transferred from Georgia’s Russian-occupied Abkhazia region, at the public funeral held in the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi.
Thea Akhvlediani, the Georgian State Minister for Reconciliation and Civil Equality, on Wednesday met with Jihan Sultanoglu, the United Nations representative in the Geneva International Discussions, to discuss conflicts in the country and ways for their peaceful resolution.