PEACEBUILDING PROCESS BETWEEN GEORGIANS AND ABKHAZIANS

Tamar Tsikhistavi

   The post-Soviet Caucasus Region is an area of conflict, including conflict between Georgians and Abkhazians. Georgia views Abkhazia as a rebellious area of Georgia; Abkhazia seeks independence from Georgia. After a violent war in 1992, the conflict between Georgians and Abkhazians remains. As a result of this war, many people were killed. Many others became refugees, and are now living all over the territory of Georgia. These refugees have lost members of their families in the war, as well as everything they had. Now they live with one hope - to return to their motherland. There are many consequences for both sides after the war - consequences which destroyed peoples' lives, killed their dreams, and killed their families.

   I am not going to speak about the number of people killed, because each of them was a person, a human being. I don't want to speak about them in the plural. For me, they can never be generalized as a group, because then we will never see the individual persons who were killed. Each person, on either side, who was killed will never return. I want to leave open the number of people killed, and when somebody who has lost his/her family member reads this article, I hope they will feel that this article is about the person they have lost. I want to tell them how sorry I am about what happened to them. I am not going to speak about these people in generalities - each of them has merit, and I must speak about them as individuals.

   The question, however, for this article, is about how we in the Caucuses region will develop a peacebuilding process between Georgians and Abkhazians. "There is no peace without reconciliation, there is no reconciliation without dialogue. Dialogue is the recognition of one another's opinions." Will there be a long-term process to manage this problem which exists between Georgians and Abkhazians? I have many questions after the sessions I have participated in at EMU, and now I see different ways of managing this problem.

   Currently, negotiations are taking place between Georgian and Abkhazian leaders. The negotiations are about the status of Abkhazia and the refugees. The main problem is that the high-level people who are participating in the negotiations think about forcing the others to leave their own positions; this is the main goal of their meetings. When that doesn't happen, they wait to see if after a time something will change, and they will be able to "win the game". They continue to wait for changes in the positions of the other side at the negotiating table. But how are the people able to negotiate between these two positions? Do they have enough knowledge to participate in a process when each person from each side says, "I am not going to change my position."

   What does it mean, not to change positions? Does it mean to speak about the same issues all the time, never giving others the chance to participate? Does it mean to force somebody to change his/her position? Or does it mean that the negotiator who is the more excellent speaker is more patriotic than others, and that he/she loves the country more than others do? Or does it mean that the negotiator has the right to wait until something will change - 5, 10, or 15 years from now - and then he/she will win? Does this negotiator have the right to make a decision like this and never think about the refugees and the suffering people?

   Refusing to change positions means not beginning the conversation. Changing strategy or positions during the negotiation does not mean that the negotiator is giving in or committing treason. It means changing understandings, using skills of peace building. We have so many problems now, so many suffering people. We don't have the time for negotiations with no results. We are simply speaking and doing nothing to improve the situation for our people.

   Maybe it's time to speak about justice and developing justice for suffering people, who have been looking for justice for years. Does somebody have the right not to help them find what they've been looking for? For people who have lost their families, their understanding of justice has disappeared. We have to think about how to help these people find peace and justice.

   But how will we manage this, if we don't develop peacebuilding studies for these people? This is a step, from which we have to begin to work. But for which category of people are we going to do this?

   If we work on developing these skills for the middle level and grassroots, we will never change anything in the top-level governmental negotiations. If we work only at the governmental negotiation level, we'll never change the relationships between people in the county - the problems of communication and relationships will remain. Only after we work on all three levels on both sides, only after we actualize the peacebuilding studies, practice, conflict resolution skills will we be able to see the results of reconciliation and true peace between Georgians and Abkhazians. If we are able to develop this process on all three levels, the next step will be a change in negotiation between the sides, and an agreement that will be acceptable to each side.

   I am sure that the conflict situations are changeable and controllable. Managing these situations depends on us, so we can't waste time closing our ears to each other - we don’t have the time or the right not to listen. Thousands of people are waiting for peace and justice, and want to build their future lives in a peaceful country. Unfortunately, both sides are infringing on peoples' rights, so it's time to stop this terrible situation and develop justice for each of them.