MFA Reports on Gross Human Rights Violations on Georgian Occupied Territories

“On 10th April 2015, a resident of the village Tagiloni, Gali district, was detained by Russian FSB officers for so called “illegal border crossing” in the area of the village of Nabakevi, Gali district, and was taken to the de facto Abkhazia State Security office in Gali. During the detention the detainee was severely beaten by Russian FSB officers.”

 “Several Russian militaries raped a woman in the village of Merkheuli on 6th June 2015. The victim was a visitor from a neighboring village. According to the same source, two Russian militaries, those blamed by family members of the victim, are relocated in the Bombora military base”.

“On 4th May 2015, a 12 year old boy, Irakli Tsaava, a resident of the village of Kvemo Barghebi, Gali district, died on the occupation line in the Abkhazia region. The child became a victim of the violation of his right to freedom of movement, namely the boy had severe health problems and his parents decided to take him across the occupation line in order to access medical care in Zugdidi, on the territory controlled by the central government of Georgia. However, Russian FSB border officers did not allow him to cross the occupation line and that resulted in the death of the 12 year old child on the occupation line.”

These and such other examples of gross violations of human rights, including torture and inhuman treatment, illegal detention, restriction of free movement and mass infringement of property rights and the right to receive education in the native language continue to be reported from the occupied territories in the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Second Quarterly Report on the Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Regions of Georgia published on August 5.

The Report covers the period from April to June 2015, is prepared in coordination with various government agencies of Georgia, in the English language, based on open and public sources of information.

The MFA of Georgia has appealed to the international community, as well as international intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to continue recognizing extensively and widely the occupation of the territories of Georgia by the Russian Federation and to call on the Russian Federation to bear responsibility for human rights violations on the occupied regions of Georgia as well as to stop placing and moving barbed wire fences and other artificial obstacles along the occupation line.

The Ministry thereby asks that additional measures are taken in order to monitor and report on the human rights situation in the occupied regions of Georgia.

The full report can be found here.

Nino Japarashvili

Photo: Andrew North for the Guardian