The third expert meeting of the Georgian-Ossetian Dialogue, which is conducted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, took place on 30-31 March 2006 in Vladikavkaz, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (Russian Federation). The participants included experts on restitution issues, government representatives and representatives of international organisations, scholars specialising in refugee issues, representatives of Russian and Georgian non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and representatives of several associations of Ossetian refugees from South Ossetia and Georgia proper who currently reside in North Ossetia. All participants attended the meeting in their personal capacity, as experts. The meeting was conducted as an expert round table and no decisions were made at the meeting.
The objective of this meeting was to exchange views on the ways to resolve the problems of refugees, who fled Georgia in the 1990s and most of whom reside on the territory of the Russian Federation, primarily in North Ossetia. The round table meeting considered: a wide spectrum of issues relating to the current situation of the refugees from Georgia and the refugees’ perspective on the best methods for receiving restitution and compensation, regarding the compensation of moral damages and other issues. Experts from the Georgian side introduced the Georgian draft law on the restitution of property and the restoration of rights to the victims of the conflict. Experts from the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe and UNHCR presented their comments on the draft law. The participants of the round table meeting agreed that the process of restitution of property and restoration of rights for the victims of the conflict should be preceded and accompanied by a comprehensive dialogue between all sides and should eventually take into account opinions expressed by the refugees themselves. Such dialogue on the development of restitution and compensation measures represents a positive step towards the resolution of conflict.
One of the opinions expressed in the course of the meeting is that at the current stage of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict resolution process it would be beneficial to involve international actors in the preparation and implementation of restitution and compensation measures as well as to engage a special commission on refugees operating within the framework of the Joint Control Commission. The participants underlined the importance of continuing informal dialogue at an expert level in the framework of the current dialogue process.
In the course of the meeting participants expressed views about the necessity to protect the refugees’ right of choice between compensation and restitution. Participants also discussed the prospects for cooperation in order to provide security guarantees to those refugees and victims of conflict who could decide to return to their original place of residence.
According to some participants the key obstacles preventing the implementation of the proposed restitution measures on the territory of Georgia include, on the one hand, the lack of confidence among the refugees towards the intentions of the Georgian side to implement practical steps towards restoration of their rights and, on the other hand, the lack of trust between the two sides of the conflict within the general process of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict resolution. The participants discussed the need to issue a political-legal assessment of the events which led to the break out of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, drafted jointly by both sides. The participants expressed confidence that real practical steps towards improving the current situation of the refugees will promote confidence building between the two sides and assist the process of conflict resolution.
Experts from Bosnia and Herzegovina presented their views on their experience in restoration of rights of the forced migrants and refugees. Similar presentations were made on the experience of property restitution for the victims of conflicts in Russia.
The Georgian-Ossetian Dialogue was organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) which is an international, non governmental, research organisation. The IISS is member-based organisation and has members from over 100 countries. The IISS deals with issues of security worldwide, including conflicts in South Asia, Balkans, Middle East, Africa and Eurasia. The meeting was facilitated and chaired by Oksana Antonenko, IISS Senior fellow for Rusisa and Eurasia. The meeting was funded by the UK Global Conflict Prevention Pool.
