18:42, 4 August 2003

Abkhazian Minister of Foreign Affairs finds it necessary to fix exact number of refugees with help of international organizations

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia Sergey Shamba finds it necessary to fix with the help of international organizations an exact number of refugees who returned to the Galyskiy region of Abkhazia. He informed journalists about it after his return from Geneva where a meeting of the Group of Friends of the Secretary-General of the United Nations had taken place.

?It has to be done, first of all, to put an end to all the speculations regarding the fact that the question of refugees? return is not being settled and they are not being returned?, Sergey Shamba said, ?When the fact of refugees? return is fixed by international organizations, Georgia will be obliged to recognize that it is necessary to develop other projects too.

Shamba noticed a political aspect of the problem since ?Georgian authorities do not want refugees? return before Georgian jurisdiction is set at least in the Galyskiy region?, and underlined that the participants of the Genevan meeting had agreed with the necessity to solve the problem of refugees? return as humanitarian one not mixing it with political questions?.

Source: Abkhazeti.ru Website