Day: December 27, 2023

A city police spokesperson in Banda Aceh did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Footage showed the students, many wearing green jackets, run into the building’s large basement space, where crowds of Rohingya men, women and children were seated on the floor and crying in fear. The Rohingya were then led out by authorities, some carrying their belongings in plastic sacks, and taken to trucks to transport them to alternative shelter, as the protesters looked on.

Rohingya refugees have experienced increasing hostility and rejection in Indonesia as locals grow frustrated at the numbers of boats arriving with the ethnic minority, who face persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has blamed the recent surge in arrivals on human trafficking, and has promised to work with international organizations to offer temporary shelter.

Arrivals tend to spike between November and April, when the seas are calmer, with Rohingya taking boats to neighboring Thailand and Muslim-majority Indonesia and Malaysia.

Wariza Anis Munandar, a 23-year-old student in Banda Aceh speaking at an earlier protest rally in the city on Wednesday called for the deportation of the Rohingya while another student, 20-year-old Della Masrida, said “they came here uninvited, they feel like it is their country.”

A UNHCR Indonesia spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday’s incident.

UNCHR said earlier this month the agency was “alarmed” by the reports of rejection in Indonesia.

Indonesia is not a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees but has a history of taking in refugees if they arrive.

For years, Rohingya have left Myanmar, where they are generally regarded as foreign interlopers from South Asia, denied citizenship and subjected to abuse.

On December 27, at a special session held at 6 a.m., ahead of the previously declared date and time, the de facto Parliament of occupied Abkhazia ratified the agreement on the transfer of the Bichvinta (the so-called “Pitsunda state dacha”) to Russia for a 49-year lease [ed.- the residence and its dependencies cover the land plot of 4 sq. Km]. The local opposition has been protesting the decision since December 26.

Civil.ge collected the statements by the Georgian authorities and the opposition.

President

President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili strongly condemned “another land grab by Russians in Georgian territories and their creeping annexation policies.” She wrote: “The strong popular reaction we see around the Bichvinta transfer is a direct result of continued occupation.” President Zurabishvili called on the international community “for a strong and urgent reaction.”

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia called the “ratification of the agreement” on the transfer of Bichvinta “an another illegal act and the continuation of Russia’s policy of occupation of the indivisible regions of Georgia, which grossly violates the fundamental principles of international law.”

According to the MFA, as per the international law, under the occupation regime “the ratification” has no legality and is void. The MFA is calling on the international community “to properly assess the Russian Federation’s yet another illegal step towards undermining Georgia’s sovereignty and the territorial integrity.”

The MFA calls on the Russian Federation to respect Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and to fulfill its obligations, including under the 2008 ceasefire agreement brokered by the European Union.

Parliamentary majority

Nikoloz Samkharadze, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Foreign Relations Committee from the ruling Georgian Dream party wrte: “We strongly condemn this illegal act and declare all legal actions carried out during occupation null and void,” adding that “this will be remedied once Georgia restores its jurisdiction over Abkhazia.”

Public Defender

Levan Ioseliani, Public Defender of Georgia, called the decision of the de-facto legislative body of the occupied Abkhazia “concerning,” and violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia.

According to Ioseliani, the disposal of state real estate property in the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia can only be carried out under the Georgian legislation.

Opposition

According to Giorgi Gakharia, leader of the opposition For Georgia party, “Russia took another step towards annexation of occupied Abkhazia against the background of Georgian Dream’s policy of anti-pragmatic silence.” Gakharia said that the occupation regime in Sokhumi, accommodating Russia’s request, gave it the Bichvinta resort “totally neglecting the will of Georgian and Abkhaz people.” “Such “decisions” are illegal. Together with our Abkhaz compatriots, we should reclaim back our land.”

Teona Akubardia, a member of the parliamentary opposition Reform Group, called the transfer a “de -facto annexation of Bichvinta” and a “tribute” demanded by Russian President Vladimir Putin from Abkhazian society. Akubardia believes that this will not be the last case of annexation. “In this context, we see how irrelevant the positions and attitudes of the Georgian government are to the national interest of territorial integrity and sovereignty.”

Saba Buadze of the opposition Lelo for Georgia party called the transfer a “tragedy” and a demonstration that Russia, acting only in its self-interest, “does not take into account even its puppet regime”. Buadze criticized the Georgian government’s lack of protest during the process of Bichvinta’s transfer to Russia.

More to follow…

A number of senior Abkhazian officials attended a meeting with Georgian representatives of the Ingur (Enguri) hydropower plant on 22 December, prompting public condemnation in Abkhazia. 

Kristina Ozgan, Abkhazia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister, led the Abkhazian delegation. 

As news spread of the delegation’s visit, several of Abkhazia’s opposition figures criticised the meeting’s secretive nature.

The Ingur dam and hydroelectric power station is the main source of electricity for Abkhazia, with additional electricity provided by Russia at a higher cost. 

On Tuesday, Ozgan confirmed her visit and stated that she had held ‘regular meetings’ prior to the one on 22 December.

‘During the meeting, we clarified our positions regarding our intentions to restore the differential hydroelectric power stations’, Ozgan told Sputnik Abkhazia. ‘The Abkhaz side indicated that we have plans to begin the reconstruction of differential hydroelectric power stations.’

In November, Temur Gulia, an opposition figure and the head of the veterans organisation Aruaa, said that Abkhazia’s opposition supported a proposal put forth by the Georgian management of the Ingur HPP and its chair, Levan Mebonia.

He cited Mebonia as saying that Georgia would repair several stations in the HPP at its expense, and then split its electricity production in half between Abkhazia and Georgia, regardless of how much either side contributed to the repairs.

After news broke of Ozgan’s visit to Georgia, Aruaa called on Ozgan to publicly apologise or ‘resign immediately’ for conducting visits to Georgia in secret.

‘All [previous] negotiations that representatives of our country held with the Georgian side took place at the Ingur hydroelectric station located on the territory of the Republic of Abkhazia on energy issues or as part of the Geneva discussions […] and were announced in advance, were known to our public’, read their statement.

‘[Ozgan] went to the territory of Georgia incognito, hiding her visit from the people of the Republic of Abkhazia’, the statement continued. ‘No one knows what Mrs Ozgan discussed and with whom she met. If these are energy issues, then we don’t know what was discussed, what did the Abkhaz side offer in exchange for electricity — political concessions or something else?’

‘But nothing stops those who hold power and abuse their powers. How dare you, current politicians, hide from the people to visit an enemy country and negotiate on our behalf?’, the statement concluded. 

‘An opportunity to restore relations and trust’

On Monday, BMG, a Georgian news outlet, reported that Ozgan had met with Romeo Mikautadze, Georgia’s deputy prime minister of economy and sustainable development, in Zugdidi in western Georgia.

While the Georgian government has not confirmed whether the meeting had taken place, Mebonia, who was also present at the meeting, told media that those in attendance had only discussed the HPP’s operation.

Mebonia did not respond to OC Media’s request for comment on who was present at the meeting in Zugdidi.

On Tuesday, Georgia’s Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili stated that he was not aware of the details of the meeting, adding that the HPP ‘has always been an opportunity to restore relations and trust between the two communities divided by the occupation line’.

On the same day, Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili also refused to comment on the meeting, but similarly stated that the HPP had ‘for years’ been a space where we could talk about technical issues in order for our fellow citizens in occupied territories to have appropriate social conditions’.

 For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.

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