GEORGIA: PERMREP LOMAIA SEEKS U.S. VIEWS ON GUAM

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 USUN NEW YORK 000675 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/09/2019 TAGS: PREL PGOV UNGA UNSC GG SUBJECT: GEORGIA: PERMREP LOMAIA SEEKS U.S. VIEWS ON GUAM RESOLUTION REF: 07 USUN 111 Classified By: Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY. Georgian Permrep Lomaia sought U.S. views on the prospects for Georgia to achieve passage of a General Assembly (GA) Resolution that would keep the Georgia conflict in the minds of Member States. Lomaia told Ambassador DiCarlo on July 9 that all four GUAM states (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova) had reached agreement to resurrect a 2007 draft resolution on GUAM protracted conflicts (Reftel),which among other provisions, reaffirms the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the GUAM states within their internationally recognized borders. Lomaia said he believed such a resolution would pass, because Azerbaijan could bring in votes through its membership in the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Lomaia also said he is considering tabling a revised version of a 2008 resolution (A/RES/62/249),which focuses solely on the problems of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Georgia. Ambassador DiCarlo told Lomaia that the U.S. could not support the 2007 version of the GUAM resolution, due to language that could undermine ongoing talks on Nagorno-Karabakh. DiCarlo said the U.S.would need to look at the text of a resolution on IDPs before commenting on it. (Subsequent to the meeting, Lomaia passed a draft text on IDPs to USUN, but he has not shared any updated text on the GUAM resolution.) DiCarlo cautioned Lomaia to be certain of strong European and other support for any text before tabling it, as Russia would work very hard to defeat a resolution related to Georgia. She also indicated that a vote similar to last year's IDP resolution would not be a win for Gerogia. DiCarlo shared U.S. thinking on other ways to keep the UN engaged on Georgia, including by having the Secretary-General appoint a Special Advisor, whom Council members could invite to brief on the situation in Georgia. END SUMMARY. -------------- -------------- Resolution on Territorial Integrity of GUAM States -------------- -------------- ¶2. (C) Georgian Permrep Alexander Lomaia sought U.S. views from Ambassador DiCarlo on July 9 about Georgia's interest in pursuing two separate General Assembly (GA) resolutions before the early September close of the 63rd GA session. Lomaia said that all GUAM countries (Georgia, Ukraina, �0A;Azerbaijan, Moldova) had reached an agreement in capitals to resurrect a draft resolution from 2007 (Reftel),which among other provisions, reaffirms the sovereignty and territorial integrity of GUAM states and welcomes the readiness of GUAM states to confer a high level of self-rule to conflict-affected territories. (The 2007 resolution was never tabled, due primarily to U.S. objections.) Lomaia said Georgia wanted to use the General Assembly as a vehicle to raise Georgia "regularly" and "in a substantive way". He believed the 2007 resolution had a chance at passage, particularly since Azerbaijan would be able to produce "around 25 votes" due to its membership in the Organization of the Islamic Conference. He emphasized that the four GUAM countries were united in a strong desire to pursue the resolution. ¶3. (C) Ambassador DiCarlo reminded Lomaia that the U.S. would not be able to support a GUAM resolution if the text were unchanged from the 2007 draft, as it would undermine negotiations currently underway between Azerbaijan and Armenia under the auspices of the Minsk Group (U.S., France, Russia) related to the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. DiCarlo said it would be difficult to muster the votes for a resolution without support from the U.S. and Europe, and even a slim victory with a majority of abstentions would send a muddy message on the GA's support for Georgia's territorial integrity. Lomaia said that he had already shared his plans in general terms with the EU troika, but they had not yet offered concrete feedback. -------------- Resolution on Georgia IDPs -------------- ¶4. (C) Ambassador Lomaia also said Georgia was considering introducing a resolution related specifically to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Georgia, similar to Resolution 62/249 from May 2008. Lomaia pointed out that Resolution 62/249 had requested the SYG to produce a report on the implementation of the resolution. The report, he said, had fallen through the cracks in the Secretariat, but was currently being written. Lomaia emphasized Georgia would want a GA debate on the report before adoption of another resolution, but that a debate could not be scheduled without the report's release. He did not expect the report to be published until late in the summer-- too late to schedule a USUN NEW Y 00000675 002 OF 003 debate, though not too late to pass another resolution. (Subsequent to the meeting with DiCarlo, the Georgian Mission passed a draft text of the resolution to USUN. See para 7.) Lomaia stressed that it would be important to adopt a resolution during the current session in order to keep the GUAM agenda item alive, since the current resolution calls for the agenda item to be carried over into this session. If the item were to fall off the GA's agenda, it would be very difficult to achieve a General Committee recommendation to re-add the agenda item on GUAM conflicts, due to Russian opposition. ¶5. (C) Ambassador DiCarlo said she understood the desire to keep the agenda item alive, but thought there might be other ways to accomplish that goal. She recalled that Macedonia had successfully managed to move an agenda item on "good neighbourliness" due to be debated during the 63rd GA to the 65th GA, and said she would look into how that had been accomplished. DiCarlo also said the U.S. would need to see a draft text of the IDP resolution before commenting on it. She noted that Georgia would have to be sure of overwhelming support for a resolution, especially from Europe, before tabling it. She emphasized that Russia would work very hard to defeat a resolution on Georgia IDPs, and that the last resolution had passed by a small margin (14-11),with a very large number of abstentions. That vote was not a "win" for Georgia despite the fact that the resolution was adopted. -------------- Continuing UN Involvement in Georgia -------------- ¶6. (C) Ambassador DiCarlo encouraged Lomaia to consider other ways to keep Georgia on the UN's agenda and sought his views on current U.S. thinking. The U.S., she said, believed that a Special Advisor to the SYG should be appointed in order to keep strong UN involvement in the Geneva talks and keep a heightened profile for Georgia. Any member of the Security Council could request a briefing from any Special Advisor. The Special Advisor could be headquartered in New York, and could be either someone appointed by the Secretary-General especially for this purpose or could be a senior Secretariat official with added duties. DiCarlo added that SRSG Johan Verbeke had floated an idea, during the July 1 Geneva meeting, of assigning a minimum number of dedicated UN staff in Georgia to facilitate the work of the Joint Incident Response and Prevention Mechanism (JIPRM). She also stressed that it would be important to maintain the presence of UNHCR and other specialized agencies on the ground, and in that regard, she suggested that SRSG Verbeke should devote some time to negotiating arrangements for their continued presence before he departs Georgia. Lomaia agreed that all of these steps would be useful. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶7. (C) We made clear to Lomaia that we could not support the 2007 GUAM resolution. We will reinforce this point with other GUAM missions in New York. However, the Georgians may have calculated that they have a better chance of obtaining passage of the 2007 resolution-- with OIC support-- than they would have with a resolution specific to Georgia IDPs. In any event, we can expect Russia to make a strong effort to defeat either draft resolution. We will explore with Lomaia whether he would consider procedurally moving the agenda item to the next GA session. Russia might see this as an acceptable compromise to a protracted fight in the GA. This would also allow a debate on the current report to be scheduled at a more appropriate time and would allow for further consideration of the resolution text. END COMMENT. -------------- Text of Draft IDP Resolution -------------- ¶8. (SBU) BEGIN TEXT: United Nations General Assembly Agenda Item 13 Status of Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees from Abkhazia, Georgia and Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia, Georgia The General Assembly, PP1. Recalling all its relevant resolutions on the protection of and assistance to internally displaced persons, including its resolution 62/153 of 18 December 2007 and resolution 62/249on Status of Internally USUN NEW Y 00000675 003 OF 003 Displaced Persons and Refugees from Abkhazia, Georgia of 15 May 2008, PP2. Recalling all relevant Security Council resolutions on Georgia relating to the return of the refugees and internally displaced persons to the places of their permanent residence, and deeply regretting the delay in the implementation of these resolutions, PP3. Recognizing the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement as an important international framework for the protection of internally displaced persons, PP4. Mindful of the need to solve the problems related to the forceful displacement in Georgia without further delay, PP6. Taking note the Report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of the UN General Assembly resolution 62/249 ( -------------- ) OP1. Recognizes the right of return of all refugees and internally displaced persons and their descendants, regardless of ethnicity, to Abkhazia, Georgia and Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia, Georgia, OP2. Deeply concerned by the aggravation of the humanitarian situation caused by the August 2008 war with Russia, resulting in a systematic violation of fundamental human rights; reported ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of local civilian population from Abkhazia, Georgia and Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia, Georgia, OP3. Deplores all violations of property rights of the refugees and internally displaced persons from Abkhazia, Georgia and Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia, Georgia and calls upon all member states to deter from obtaining property within the territory of Abkhazia, Georgia and Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia, Georgia in violation of the rights of returnees, OP4. Reaffirms the unacceptability of the demographic changes in Abkhazia, Georgia and Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia, Georgia, OP5. Underlines the strong need for unimpeded access for all humanitarian purposes to Abkhazia, Georgia and Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia, Georgia, OP6. Emphasizes the importance of enhanced presence of diverse UN agencies, in particular the UNHCR in Georgia, including Abkhazia, Georgia and Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia; OP7. Calls upon the participants of the Geneva Discussions to take immediate steps towards creating favorable security and human rights conditions conducive to the safe and dignified return of all IDPs and refugees to the places of their permanent residence in Abkhazia, Georgia and Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia, Georgia, OP8. Underlines the urgent need for rapid development of a timetable to ensure the prompt voluntary return of all refugees and internally displaced persons, to their homes in Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia, Georgia, OP9. Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its sixty-four session a comprehensive report on the implementation of the present resolution and all related issues to the problem of forceful displacement in Georgia, OP10. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its sixty-fourth session the item entitled "Protracted conflicts in the GUAM area and their implications for the international peace, security and development". RICE