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

Agenda.ge, 13 Nov 2023 - 13:21, Tbilisi,Georgia

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.