Georgian Foreign Ministry hands over note addressed to Russia to Swiss Ambassador

Georgia, Tbilisi, June 28 / Trend N.Kirtzkhalia /

Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Nino Kalandadze has met with Ambassador of Swiss Confederation to Georgia Guenther Baechler, the Georgian Foreign Ministry reported.

During the meeting, Kalandadze transmitted to Baechle the Note of the Georgian Foreign Ministry addressed to the Foreign Ministry of Russian Federation by which the Georgian side invites the Russian Federation to participate in further negotiations to resolve the disputes that have arisen with respect to the Russian Federation's responsibility for breaches of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

The Note emphasizes that the Russian Federation has committed the following violations, inter alia:

• Preventing the exercise of the right of return of ethnic Georgians who were expelled from their homes in Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia, Georgia and Abkhazia, Georgia during the early 1990s.

• Discrimination in the period prior to the commencement of major hostilities in August 2008 against ethnic Georgians living in areas of Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia, Georgia and Abkhazia, Georgia controlled by Russia and the proxy regimes, including with respect to ethnically motivated violence and destruction of property; educational, cultural and linguistic rights; freedom of movement; and passportization.

• Ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia, Georgia and adjacent areas of Georgia during August 2008 and in the months that followed.

Georgia took into consideration the Judgment of the International Court of Justice of April 1, 2011, in which the ICJ has established the fact of the existence of dispute between Georgia and the Russian Federation, however has indicated the necessity of holding direct negotiations between the two States in the framework of the above-mentioned Convention, the ministry reported.

Military actions were launched in the unrecognized republic of South Ossetia in August 2008. Georgian troops entered Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia and later Russian troops occupied the city and drove the Georgian military back to Georgia. Russia recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia on Aug. 26 and established diplomatic relations with them on Sept. 9, 2008.