UN IDPs official visits Georgia

The UN Secretary General’s representative on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, Walter Kaelin, is paying a visit to Georgia on September 13-16. He held a meeting at the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia on Monday. After the meeting with Minister Koba Subeliani, Kaelin said that he received “detailed information” about the situation in terms of IDPs in Georgia.

There is progress being made in the implementation of the action plan on IDPs in the country, according to Kaelin. “I visited Tbilisi two years ago and South Ossetia a year ago. The aim of my visit is to find out about the stages of implementation of the action plan on IDPs,” the UN Secretary General’s representative said “The meeting with the Minister was quite productive and I received detailed information. Quite a lot has been done in terms of implementing the action plan,” he added.

Minister Subeliani told journalists that he informed the UN delegation about the registration of living spaces for the IDPs, the rehabilitation of their homes and the stages of implementing the action plan on IDPs. Each visit of this kind indicates that the de-occupation process has “matured”, Subeliani noted. “Mr. Kaelin is one of the authors of the state strategy on IDPs. He could not even imagine that the strategy would have been implemented in such high pace,” the Georgian Minister said “He was informed about the statistics of registering living spaces for the IDPs in Georgia. About 300 objects have been registered in Tbilisi and the process is starting in the regions as well,” he added.

Subeliani stressed the importance of Kaelin’s upcoming visit to Abkhazia. “It will be interesting for all IDPs to hear what messages he will bring from Sukhumi. The fact is that the conditions for de-occupation of Georgia’s territories are maturing and one day this will probably happen. Each of these visits indicate that the process is progressing,” the Minister noted.

Kaelin will sum up his visit to Georgia on September 16, after holding meetings in Sukhumi and Gali in Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia, as well as with the IDPs and the civil society representatives in Tbilisi.