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.

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Resolution on Territorial Integrity of GUAM States
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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,
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.

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Resolution on Georgia IDPs
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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

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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.

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Continuing UN Involvement in Georgia
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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.

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COMMENT
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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.


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Text of Draft IDP Resolution
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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

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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