Georgia, 2008

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.