Georgia

I welcome the opportunity today to address this sixty-third annual gathering of the Assembly at such a critical moment in the history of my own country and of the United Nations. Sometimes, the most extreme tests of this institution’s towering ideals arise in small, faraway places, of which we know very little. I come to you as the representative of one of those places — the country of Georgia, a land of fewer than 5 million that last month was invaded by our neighbour. Despite our small size, the legal, moral, political and security implications raised by that invasion could not have greater consequences. Indeed, those issues cut through to the heart of the founding Charter of the United Nations. The principles enshrined in that Charter include the inviolability of sovereign borders, the sanctity of human rights, the supremacy of international law and the global rejection of armed aggression. All of those principles were put to the test by the invasion and now hang in the balance. The invasion violated Georgia’s internationally recognized borders. At the very beginning of the aggression, we clearly told our own people and the world that the spirit of the people of Georgia would not be broken and that we would never give up freedom and never surrender. We never did and never will. The subsequent recognition of the so-called independence of our two regions — South Ossetia, with a population of less than 20,000 in the areas that Russia controlled, and Abkhazia, with a population of less than 50,000 ethnic Abkhaz — in order to punish our country and send a signal to the rest of the world, not only challenged our territorial integrity but also defied common sense and the elementary principles of international interaction. The ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of our people violated the very idea of human rights. This General Assembly, therefore, faces a general challenge. We are called upon not just to respond to the particular question of one instance of armed aggression in a single place but to define our attitude towards armed aggression in all places. We are called upon to answer the momentous question: will this body stand up for its founding principles, or will it allow them to be crushed under the treads of invading tanks, under the boots of ethnic cleansers, under the immobilizing impact of cyberattacks and under the pernicious tactics of violent separatism? What would it mean for every member of this Assembly to defend the underlying principles of the United Nations? First, each of us must refuse to stand silent in the face of this armed aggression and assault on human rights. Secondly, we must stand united and immediately adopt a policy of non-recognition towards Georgia’s two breakaway provinces, currently occupied and 08-51606 26 annexed by the aggressor. Together, we have both a moral and a legal obligation to protect international law and the world order. Thirdly, we must ensure that all parties comply with the full terms of the existing ceasefire agreement. Fourthly, and lastly, we must resolve to create a meaningful United Nations conflict resolution process that will peacefully reunify Georgia and solve the problem. The bottom line is this: we must be ready to use the full power of international law and of our collective international institutions to uphold the historic balance of justice and thereby set in motion a series of actions to right these historic wrongs. While the crisis poses grave challenges for the entire international community, it creates specific obligations for my own country. I would argue that the answer to that new assault on our shared values is not a closing up or a circling of the wagons, but rather greater openness on many fronts. As a democracy, we have nothing to fear. As a democracy, we have an obligation to our people and to the international community to be even more open and transparent. For me and my Government, that commitment translates into a series of specific actions at both the international and the domestic levels. Allow me to explain. First, I know that there are many people in the world who seek a clearer understanding of how this war started and who started it. Rather than recite our case, let me repeat the simple invitation that I first made on 17 August while standing next to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who visited Georgia immediately after the unleashing of hostilities, when I proposed that there should be an exhaustive independent investigation of the origins and causes of this war. Investigators must have unimpeded access to all officials, documents and intelligence. Georgia welcomes such an investigation. My Government is ready to share every piece of evidence and to provide access to every witness sought by investigators. We call on the other party to this conflict to fully cooperate and not to obstruct the investigation. That is how democracies behave. The truth must come out, not only to clarify how events unfolded last month but also to help us to answer the fundamental questions that this invasion has raised. My Government’s second initiative of openness involves developments within our borders. Whereas others waged this war with arms, we will wage it with values. Georgia was attacked because it is a successful democracy in our part of the world. Our response today is to make our democracy even more robust. That is why I am announcing to the Assembly four categories of expanded democratic initiatives. First, we will strengthen the checks and balances of our democratic institutions, including granting greater independence to parliament and to the judiciary. Secondly, we will provide additional resources and protections to foster greater political pluralism, including by increasing funding for opposition parties and ensuring they have greater access to the airwaves. Thirdly, we will strengthen the rule of law by introducing enhanced due process, trials by jury and lifetime judicial appointments. Fourthly, we will expand and deepen protections for private property. In everything we do, we will be transparent. This morning, I was honoured to learn that, in Transparency International’s latest index, Georgia was among the few countries to have risen significantly in the rankings over the past year. Indeed, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development ranks Georgia among the least corrupt economies in Europe. Despite all the turmoil, my country has endured. That proves the resiliency and irreversibility of our democratic commitment. In short, we will fight the spectre of aggression and authoritarianism with the most potent weapon in our arsenal, namely, our commitment to ever-expanding freedoms within our own borders. That amounts to nothing less than a second Rose Revolution. If our first revolution was about meeting a threat from within by reinventing a failed State riddled by corruption, our second revolution must be even more focused, as we now face an even greater challenge — one that comes from the outside. The success of the first Rose Revolution helped save my country. The health of the international order could well depend on the outcome of the second Rose Revolution. Countless people throughout the world were deeply moved and profoundly troubled by the invasion of Georgia, which began, with tragic irony, on the eve of that great celebration of peace, the Olympic Games. On the most basic level, the world responded with passionate humanity to the plight of ordinary 27 08-51606 Georgians under siege; to the sight of 80-year-old men and women driven from their villages; to the hundreds of thousands of innocent souls taking shelter from bombings; to a small country of less than 5 million people being trampled by a neighbour 300 times its size. The world responded immediately by sending generous aid, by coming to Georgia and by showing its solidarity. Meanwhile, leaders from around the world have been working tirelessly to negotiate and enforce a ceasefire. I am especially grateful to President Sarkozy of France for his dedication to ensuring that the ceasefire is fully implemented in letter and in spirit. As all parties have agreed, that means the full withdrawal of all military forces from my country to their pre-conflict positions. The world’s actions proved that the most potent response to this brutal invasion is to rebuild Georgia’s democracy and economy, making them even stronger than before. I want to make a special commitment to all those who, during these especially difficult economic times, are helping to fund Georgia’s reconstruction: we will spend their resources wisely, well and with full transparency. Georgia will rebuild. It will contribute to the prosperity and security of all its citizens and of the entire international community by providing stability in our part of the world and serving as a model for democratic development. Reconstruction will also ensure that Europe continues to benefit from the true energy security that comes from diversification. And everything we do will be done peacefully. But today we must ask a series of questions, the answers to which have grave consequences. We have all wondered in recent weeks: was this invasion an aberration or a misguided attempt to resort to the nineteenth-century logic of brute force, or was it a sign of an ominous new trend, one that could continue and deepen to undermine the international order of the twenty-first century, eroding State sovereignty and the power of our common and hard-fought principles? I believe that that question and others have not yet been answered. Others still need to be asked. Will we encourage violent and hateful separatism around the world, standing aside when State sovereignty is subverted, or will we draw a clear line and defend the principles that uphold the international order and declare, enough? In the twenty-first century, we have better ways to protect the rights of ethnic minorities than with T-72 tanks and Sukhoi fighter jets. We have developed a body of legal and political examples to accommodate minority demands within the context of national sovereignty. After all, that is one of the great achievements of the United Nations, of the European Union and of other multilateral and regional organizations. Its foundation is the belief that democracy and prosperity provide room for all. Are we ready to throw all that away? And what of the use of brute force? Will we look the other way or reward the dispatch of tens of thousands of troops and hundreds of planes across internationally recognized borders to bomb another country? Will we cover our eyes when ethnic cleansing occurs, as it has over and over again for the past 16 years in Abkhazia and South Ossetia? In a world that struggles to reign in traditional forms of State violence, will we sanction new ones? During the invasion of Georgia, we witnessed several terrifying new twists in the waging of war. We saw proxy forces and militias cynically unleashed to ethnically cleanse the population of my country, operating without any restraint and outside any order. We demand a thorough United Nations investigation of the crimes against humanity, war crimes and human rights violations that have been committed. We have experienced the first full-scale cyber warfare campaign, which was aimed at crippling my country’s economy and our ability to communicate with the outside world. It is profoundly distressing to see the technology that has woven our world together and helped to bridge cultures being used to divide ethnic groups and to tear our world apart. Today, when most of the world understands the existential threat posed by climate change and ecological destruction, we in Georgia have witnessed a sickening campaign of ecocide as part of the invasion. That occurred when combat helicopter gunships continuously dropped firebombs on old-growth forests in the Borjomi National Park, which comprises our national centre for tourism, recreation, culture and water resources. I believe that, together, we have the solemn responsibility to deliver answers to those questions. We will succeed. Let us resolve to bring the right conclusions to the world. 08-51606 28 The invasion of our country provided an impressive demonstration of the power of global public opinion, which can find expression only when societies are open and free. Ultimately, what stopped the tanks and troops from taking our capital was the international disapproval voiced by so many here, by the free media, by courageous human rights groups and by leading voices of the world’s conscience, from Natan Sharansky to Václav Havel. Rhetoric, however, is no longer enough; today, we must act. If words were sufficient, then something might have come from the many calls for peace and the countless warnings that I myself have made from this rostrum over the years. No one has fought harder than my country and myself to heal the ethnic rifts in Georgia and to bring about a peaceful resolution of the conflict, and we will continue to fight forcefully. Indeed, in this very place, I have warned so many times that this situation was in the making — that there was a threat. Four years ago, we were discussing the dangers posed by the illegal Russian build-up in our country aimed at our territories. We spoke about the distribution of passports and about the illegal bases built on our territories. We knew that those subversive tactics, combined with the ethnic cleansing that had driven most Georgians from those territories, would one day be used as a pretext for invasion. And that is precisely what happened last month. It is also happening in other countries in our neighbourhood. In 2006, I urgently drew attention to the attempts being made to annex Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and I asked whether any members in this great Hall would tolerate such interference by another Power on their own soil. I warned of the risk that “a Pandora’s box will be opened, unleashing violent separatism and conflict not only in the Caucasus but across many parts of our globe” (A/61/PV.16, p. 4). Today, unfortunately, we stand at that very precipice, where peace could yield to a pernicious new world order. One year ago, I came to this Hall with even more distressing news: that an illegal new military base was being built in South Ossetia by those who hoped that arms and violence could triumph over the will of the people. I noted that that dangerous escalation was taking place under the very noses of the international monitors whose job it was to demilitarize the territory, and I asked that those reckless acts be countered. Our warnings continued in the months and weeks before the invasion. We told anyone who would listen about the campaign that had been unleashed to slander Georgia and my Government while blocking any meaningful negotiations with the separatists. That was part of a calculated effort to weaken international support for Georgia and to lay the groundwork for the invasion. We gave the international community the details of a sharp military build-up by the purported peacekeepers — a build-up that began this spring in both conflict zones, leading to armed attacks this summer by separatist militias. Just before the land invasion began in the early hours of 7 August, after days of heavy shelling that had killed civilians and peacekeepers, we urgently sought to refute claims that 2,100 South Ossetian civilians had been killed by Georgians. That was the excuse used by the invader for what it called a “humanitarian intervention” — a profound perversion of the responsibility to protect. That lie, which was subsequently debunked by Human Rights Watch — which estimated that 44 had been killed — and others, was an attempt to conceal the true motives for the invasion. Over the years, I have also spoken many times to you about the plans that Georgia has developed, together with the international community, to peacefully reunify my country. I have spoken about the urgent need to replace and transform the failed frameworks for negotiation and peacekeeping in our region. Repeatedly and with sincere intent, I have extended my hand to our large neighbour. Just a few days before the invasion of Georgia, we continued to work furiously for peace. The Secretary-General had sent his Special Representative to Georgia to determine how to fix the broken process of conflict resolution, and we cooperated closely with him. The German Government had proposed peace talks for mid-August — talks that my Government eagerly supported. The Finnish Chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe also proposed talks in Helsinki in late July, to which we subscribed. Unfortunately, the opposing parties to the conflict repeatedly turned their backs; they had other plans in mind. Finally, on the eve of the invasion, my Special Envoy travelled twice in desperation to South Ossetia to plead for peace. His counterpart from our neighbouring country failed to come to those meetings. He cited a flat tire as the reason for not showing up. 29 08-51606 Within 24 hours, thousands of very full tires were rolling across the border of my country. So words alone are not nearly enough. Nor can words accurately convey the horrors of war. It is difficult, if not impossible, to say that anything good can ever come of war. The value of human life is incalculable, and we in Georgia grieve not only for our own lost sons and daughters, but also for our fallen neighbours who were sent in to carry out an unjust aggression of war. Yet, the international community has emerged from the invasion of my country with something truly valuable: finally, clarity. We understand what has happened. We can no longer deny the motivations and intentions of those actors who instigated the war. With clarity comes responsibility. We no longer have any reason for inaction. Now each of us has a responsibility to act. Despite the destruction wreaked by the invasion — hundreds dead; nearly 200,000 displaced, according to the United Nations; our economy disabled — my Government is putting our convictions into practice. I promise to you that my Government will implement with all due speed the new democratic initiatives that constitute the second “Rose Revolution”. I promise to you that Georgia will soon be stronger and more democratic than ever before, and thus that it will be in a better position to contribute to our collective security and prosperity. However, if that is to have any meaning, we must together defend the principles on which this institution was built. We need actions, not words. Allow me to repeat once again the four commitments that, I believe, we must make. First, each of us must refuse to stand silently by in the face of this armed aggression, occupation, ethnic cleansing and assault directed against a United Nations Member State. Secondly, we must stand united in rejecting the forced and illegal recognition of Georgia’s two separatist provinces and what is essentially their annexation by its neighbour. Thirdly, we must ensure that all parties comply fully with the existing ceasefire agreement. Fourthly, we must resolve to create a meaningful conflict resolution process that will peacefully reunify Georgia and resolve the conflict, in the interest of all ethnic groups and minorities, our society as a whole and the region. If we can accomplish those goals, then this institution will emerge from this crisis stronger than it was before. If, however, we fail to stop the violent tactics that have subverted State sovereignty in Georgia, they will spread to other parts of the world. It is our collective responsibility to respond with conviction and resolve. Georgia has made its choice, and our democracy will emerge stronger as a result. Together, we will find ways, as we have over the millennia, to ensure peaceful coexistence among all members of our multiethnic society, be they ethnically Georgian, Abkhaz or Ossetian. We have been a Christian country since the fifteenth century, but we are also a country in which many different religious groups and communities coexist. Diversity is our strength, not a source of our weakness. We are willing to strengthen our diversity even further in order to make my country successful and whole once again, rejuvenated and rebuilt.