From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

Georgia From Solidarity to Solutions: The Government Response to Internal Displacement in Georgia
From Solidarity to Solutions: The Government Response
to Internal Displacement in Georgia
Overview of Internal Displacement
in Georgia
Internal displacement in Georgia is predominantly
the result of conflict. As of May 2011, there were
some 256,100 conflict-induced internally displaced
persons (IDPs) in Georgia, amounting to 5.5 percent of
the country’s population. 1 Displacement has resulted
from two different conflicts, centered in and around the
regions of South Ossetia (also known as Tskhinvali) and
Abkhazia. In both cases, conflict and consequent largescale
displacement have occurred in two main phases:
first, with the outbreak of conflict in both regions in the
early 1990s; and second, with the renewal of hostilities
in and around South Ossetia that also have affected
Abkhazia, for five days in August 2008. Between the
two peak phases of conflict have been extended periods
of several years characterized by the absence of active
hostilities but also by lack of peace, leading to their classification
as so-called “frozen” conflicts. The IDPs resulting
from these two distinct periods of displacement
commonly are referred to as the “old” and “new” IDPs.
“Old” IDPs refers those affected by the internal displacement
that occurred in the early 1990s. Following the
disintegration of the Soviet Union and Georgia’s resulting
declaration of independence in 1991, conflicts broke
out in South Ossetia and Abkhazia over their claims to
self-determination. Combined, the two conflicts displaced
some 300,000 people during the period of active
hostilities, from 1991 to 1992 in South Ossetia and from
1992 to 1993 in Abkhazia. Most of the displacement
1 Figures current as of end May 2011, provided to the author
in July 2011 by the Government of Georgia, Ministry
for Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied
Territories, Accommodation and Refugees. For further
discussion, see analysis under Benchmark 3, below.
Erin Mooney
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occurred within the internationally recognized borders
of Georgia, and the patterns of displacement showed a
strong ethnic dimension. The vast majority of the IDPs
are ethnic Georgians displaced from Abkhazia. In addition,
some 20,000 IDPs, ethnic Ossets as well as ethnic
Georgians, resulted from the conflict in South Ossetia,
of whom half remained within South Ossetia while the
other half fled to Georgia proper. 2 Additional, smallerscale
displacement in connection with these conflicts
took place several years later, following a resurgence of
hostilities in May 1998 in Abkhazia and in July-August
2004 in South Ossetia. During the several years of socalled
“frozen” conflict, a certain amount of return to
these areas took place. An estimated 45,000 to 50,000
people spontaneously returned to the Gali region of
Abkhazia—returns that officially are unrecognized by
the Georgian government (see Benchmarks 3 and 10)—
while the organized return to South Ossetia of several
thousand IDPs as well as refugees—of whom 5,735 were
assisted by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR)—occurred between 1997 and 2005. 3
2 The conflict in Abkhazia displaced some 240,000 people,
the vast majority of whom are ethnic Georgians who were
displaced from Abkhazia into other parts of Georgia;
smaller-scale short-term displacement also occurred
within Abkhazia, though even approximate figures are
unknown. The conflict in South Ossetia displaced an
estimated 60,000 people, of whom approximately 20,000
became IDPs: some 10,000 ethnic Georgians fled the
conflict region into areas of the country under the control
of the government of Georgia while 5,000 ethnic Ossets
were displaced within South Ossetia and were joined by
a further 5,000 Ossets who fled into South Ossetia from
other parts of Georgia. In addition, some 40,000 people,
mostly ethnic Ossets fleeing the conflict in South Ossetia,
crossed the border into the Russian Federation region of
North Ossetia.
3 UN Commission on Human Rights, Report of the
Representative of the Secretary-General on Internally