Reuters AlertNet, UK
April 26 2005
Forgotten People: Internally Displaced from Abkhazia
Source: NGO latest
Yodit Fitigu
Refugees International – USA
Website:
Contact: Yodit Fitigu [email protected] or 202-828-0110
Forgotten People: Internally Displaced from Abkhazia Why are they
forgotten?
An estimated 300,000 people were displaced as a result of Georgia¡¦s
wars against two separatist military campaigns, one in the Black Sea
region of Abkhazia in the northwest and the other in northeast region
of South Ossetia. The war over Abkhazian autonomy between 1992 and
1994 led to the displacement of approximately 240,000 people, mainly
ethnic Georgians. More than 10 years after the cessation of armed
conflict, the majority of the displaced remain trapped. Although a
limited number of displaced populations near the border were able to
return to home, the political stalemate between the de facto
government of Abkhazia and Georgia has kept the majority of the
displaced in a state of constant limbo.
For years, resolving the issue of internal displaced persons (IDPs)
was held hostage to the territorial disputes between Abkhazian and
Georgian officials. For the Georgian government, the ¡§IDP question¡¨
was inextricably tied to Georgia¡¦s ¡§territorial integrity;¡¨
regaining Abkhazia would mean return for the displaced. Both
authorities continue to depend on the international community to find
a solution.
With the end of armed conflict in the early 1990s, the international
community began relief efforts. A shift in assistance occurred during
the mid to late-1990s, when international donors began focusing on
development programs. However, lack of humanitarian assistance
remains a concern for displaced people. Unable to return home, many
are left in destitute conditions in the urban centers of Georgia.
Living below Georgia¡¦s subsistence level without adequate food,
access to health services, and shelter, the majority of IDPs in
Georgia are among the poorest and most vulnerable.
Despite a rhetorical commitment during the Rose Revolution to
resolving the displacement issues, the government of Georgia neglects
the displaced because its priority is economic development pending an
overall political resolution of the status of the Abkhazia region.
For international donor governments, the displaced are invisible.
Their needs do not rise to the level of other displaced persons, and
the absence of on-going armed conflict makes the situation relatively
easy to ignore.
Historical Background Civil unrest and internal wars erupted
throughout the Soviet Republics during the break-up of the Soviet
Union. In 1991, the southern Caucasus nation of Georgia was thrown
into two separatist wars that caused massive displacement in the
Black Sea region of Abkhazia and in South Ossetia in northeast
Georgia.
As in many separatist wars throughout the world, ethno-political
conflict became a significant contributor to internal displacement.
During the Abkhazian separatist war, ethnicity became the vehicle for
power and a weapon for the removal of entire groups of people.
In the Soviet Union, conflict fueled by identity politics had its
roots in the imperial national-building project. Similar to European
colonial ambitions in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, Imperial
Russia brought its nationalization project to the Caucasus. Conquest
of the Caucasus brought about policies of Russification, in which
aspects of Russian national identity, such as language, religion, and
customs, were imposed on the conquered people as the superior
national identity. Rather than forging a unified Russian national
identity, however, existing boundaries became solidified, further
fueling indigenous consciousness throughout the Caucasus. This has
been witnessed in several republics that later became independent
nations.
These processes intensified through the Soviet policy of population
relocation where various ethnic groups in the Caucasus were forcibly
relocated in the effort to suppress indigenous nationalism. For
example, Ossetians were strategically relocated to two areas regarded
by Soviet Union as most rebellious: Muslin Ingushetia, bordering
Chechnya, and in northern Georgia. In the Abkhazian region, Russians
and Armenians were resettled among the Greeks, Georgians, ethnic
Abkhazians, and others who were earlier settlers during the Ottoman
Empire. In the same manner, Russians were resettled throughout the
Soviet Republics in the attempts to Russify the local population.
The political and economic favoring of one group over another at
different points in history helped to crystallize differences.
Russia¡¦s attempt to maintain power produced competition for scarce
resources and group rivalries over the region. In the Abkhazian
region, as in other Soviet Republics, Soviet policies contributed to
the tension between the various ethnic groups. When an ethnic group
was rising to a certain level of power and influence over their
population, Russia would pump economic and social benefits to another
group. In the mid-1930s, Russia¡¦s farm collectives attracted more
central Georgians to the Abkhazian region, creating competition for
labor among indigenous Georgians as well as other ethnic groups
within Abkhazia. As the Georgian population began to grow within
Abkhazia and Soviet power tightened over the region, ethnic politics
intensified.
At the same time, in an effort to reject Russia¡¦s cultural and
political domination, a nationalist campaign for independence was
underway throughout Georgia and the other nations in the Caucasus. In
Abkhazia, this drive for national Georgian unity was perceived by
many other ethnic groups as a drive to Georgianize the region. In
effect it created the fear of cultural absorption among non-Georgian
groups, particularly ethnic Abkhazians. While they had previously
rejected Russification, ethnic Abkhazians preferred unification with
Russia over identification with the Georgian nation. This resulted in
the emergence of competing forms of nationalism and power between
Abkhazians and ethnic Georgians.
In 1992, Abkhaz separatists and Georgian national army began a war
that lasted two years, with sporadic violence continuing until 1999,
displacing all ethnic groups within Abkhazia. Both militaries were
responsible for targeting the other¡¦s ethnic population by burning
villages and destroying buildings and farm land. According to the
Soviet government census of 1989, the pre-war population in Abkhazia
was 525,000, 45% of which were classified as ethnic Georgians and 18%
classified as ethnic Abkhazians. Post-war Abkhazia is 80-90% ethnic
Abkhazian with the rest comprised of a mixed Abkhaz-Georgian
population and some 30,000 Georgians on the border who return for
harvesting during times of security.
While the numbers of displaced people is controversial and disputed
by both sides, some conclusions have been reached. The largest number
of displaced were ethnic Georgians. In addition, between 1992 and
1993 approximately 75,000 Russians and 75,000 Armenians fled to
Russia, while close to15,000 Greeks returned to Greece after
centuries in Abkhazia. Ethnic Abkhazians also became internally
displaced during the prolonged conflict.
Humanitarian conditions
Georgia continues to face enormous political and economic
consequences since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Since the end of
civil war in the mid-1990s, Georgia received relief assistance as
well as aid for development programs. While the shift from relief aid
to development was needed in Georgia, purely humanitarian aid is
still greatly needed for the most vulnerable populations.
Georgia¡¦s high unemployment rate has contributed to the high level
of poverty, with 54% of the population below the poverty line.
Conditions for internally displaced people are more critical in urban
areas. Overall, the unresolved political situation with Abkhazia is
creating a volatile situation for the displaced and for Georgia as a
whole. The longer the political stand-off between Abkhazia and
Georgia persists, the more humanitarian assistance will be needed for
the internally displaced.
In addition, security remains a great concern in the Gali district of
Abkhazia, where approximately 60,000 IDPs have spontaneously returned
to farm their lands. At least half of the returnee population
self-resettled in permanent locations, while another half return
seasonally only for farming purposes. Humanitarian assistance and the
building of infrastructure have been limited due to sporadic
insecurity. However, it remains crucial that humanitarian assistance
reach as many people as possible. It is important to underscore that
tensions between returnees and ethnic Abkhazians will ease as
international donors show financial support for rehabilitation
programs and community-based projects.
The privatization of major hotels in Georgia, spearheaded by the
president of Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili, had a two-pronged goal: to
increase economic prosperity for Georgia by attracting international
business and to fulfill the national IDP housing law by providing
permanent homes for IDP families from Abkhazia. In practice, however,
the national IDP law, which required the State to provide housing for
all IDPs, has not been implemented.
On Rustaveli Street, rows of theaters and restaurants line the heart
of Tbilisi¡¦s fashionable district. The once glamorous Iveria Hotel
now stands in the center of this district as a visible reminder of
the Abkhaz war and the displaced that were housed there for over 14
years. Through President Saakashvili¡¦s privatization act, the hotel
was sold and IDPs were given approximately $7,000 per hotel room. A
number of problems arose, however. First, most of the hotel rooms
were not shared by one family, but several families. Therefore, the
money had to be divided among two or more families sharing one hotel
room. To complicate matters, IDPs were left on their own to find
housing after the sale. In the capital city of Tbilisi, where 40 % of
IDPs reside, finding an apartment to rent or buy has become
increasingly difficult with soaring housing costs. As a result, many
IDP families have to live in smaller rundown hotels or cooperatives,
often without electricity and running water. Despite the countless
resolutions passed in the Cabinet of Ministers for the economic and
political protection of IDPs, efforts to enforce their civil rights
have been abandoned by the Georgian government and ignored by the
international community.passed in the Cabinet of Ministers for the
economic and political protection of IDPs, efforts to enforce their
civil rights have been abandoned by the Georgian government and
ignored by the international community.
Therefore, Refugees International recommends that:
„X The Government of Georgia and the de-facto Abkhazian officials
continue their dialogue towards reaching a political settlement, a
precondition for finding a solution for the displaced population.
„X The Government of Georgia implement established IDP laws regarding
housing and other issues, and make a greater effort to end
mismanagement and corruption of IDP funds.
„X The European Union get involved in creating conditions for
dialogue between the Georgian government and Abkhazia in order to
find longer-term solutions for the displaced population.
„X Donors pay attention to the extreme poverty of vulnerable groups
by providing humanitarian relief in addition to development aid.
„X Donors support the implementation of relief assistance and
rehabilitation programs among returnee populations in the Gali
region.
Yodit Fitigu is a McCall-Pierpaoli Fellow with Refugees
International.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not
of Reuters. ]