UN backs Georgia on return of refugees

15 May, 2008 12:56 / Updated 17 years ago

The UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution on internally displaced persons and refugees from Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia. It spells out the necessity for a schedule of voluntary return of people to Abkhazia who fled hostilities in the e

The plan was drawn up by the Georgian delegation to the UN. Abkhazia unilaterally declared its independence from Georgia in 1992, but the international community has not recognised it as a sovereign state. The declaration of independence led to a full-scale military operation against Abkhazia by Tbilisi. The conflict claimed thousands of lives, forcing more than 250 thousand ethnic Georgians leave their homes.