UN Passes Resolution On Refugees From Georgia's Breakaway Regions

The UN General Assembly has passed a Georgian-sponsored resolution reiterating the right of return of all displaced persons and refugees to breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The resolution was passed on June 5 by a vote of 69 in favor to 13 against, with 79 abstentions.

This is the seventh consecutive year such a nonbinding resolution has been adopted by the UN General Assembly.

Georgia says the goal of the resolution is to keep the issue high on the international agenda and to widen the circle of support for the resolution from year to year.

Thousands were forced to leave the two breakaway regions in recent years after they declared their independence.

Only Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Nauru in the South Pacific have recognized the two regions' independence, declared after Moscow defeated Georgia in a short war in August 2008.
With reporting with civil.ge