Over Russian objections and to Georgian applause, the United Nations General Assembly reaffirmed the right of all displaced persons to an unconditional return to the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
This may be a paper victory for Georgia, but Tbilisi said it has rekindled homecoming hopes for as many as 400,000 people, mostly ethnic Georgians, who over the past two decades fled the two separatist enclaves that Russia (along with Nicaragua, Venezuela and Naru) has recognized as sovereign states.
Passed by a 50-to-17 vote, the latest in a series of non-binding resolutions calls for creating a timetable for the repatriation of all displaced people and their descendants, and respecting their right to property left behind.
Russia, which went to war with Georgia in 2008 over South Ossetia, tried to stonewall the resolution, saying it jumbles together political and humanitarian goals and undermines the already troubled peace talks in Geneva.
Fenced behind a palisade of Russian guns, separatist Abkhaz and South Ossetian officials, who view the en masse return of ethnic Georgians as an existential threat to the de-facto independence of their territories from Georgia, are not expected to act on the resolution.
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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