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DE RUEHC #6991 1232356
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 022349Z MAY 08
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TO RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN IMMEDIATE 0000
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON IMMEDIATE 0000
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS IMMEDIATE 0000
INFO RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW IMMEDIATE 0000
RUEHSI/AMEMBASSY TBILISI IMMEDIATE 0000
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK IMMEDIATE 0000

C O N F I D E N T I A L STATE 046991 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/01/2018 
TAGS: UNGA GE PREL
SUBJECT: DEMARCHE REQUEST:  URGING WESTERN FRIENDS' 
SUPPORT FOR GEORGIAN IDP AND REFUGEE RESOLUTION 
 
Classified By: IO PDAS James B. Warlick, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1.  This is an action request.  Department requests that 
Embassies London, Paris, and Berlin urge host governments 
to vote in support of the Georgian UN General Assembly (UNGA) 
resolution on internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 
refugees currently scheduled for consideration around May 9. 
Post should pursue the objectives in para 2 below with MFA IO 
Assistant Secretary equivalents.  The German, British, and 
French Friends of Georgia have previously indicated support 
for this resolution; therefore, delivery to EUR Directors is 
at Posts' discretion.  Post may draw from the background 
material in para 4 - 8 below when delivering this demarche. 
End action request. 
 
¶2.  (U) Department requests posts pursue the following 
objectives: 
 
--  Urge support for the Georgian IDP UNGA resolution, 
drawing on the background in para 4-8 below. 
 
--  For IO-equivalent interlocutors:  Underscore agreement 
with concerns about eroding the division of competencies 
between the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council, 
but explain this is not the time to stand on principle.  We 
are willing to work with the Georgians on the text of the 
resolution so that it will not contain &recommendations." 
 
--  For EUR-equivalent interlocutors:  Note that we have long 
hoped to see an IDP and refugee resolution from Georgia 
because IDP and refugee return is a core issue of the 
Abkhazia conflict.  Failure to address this issue is a 
primary reason why the UN settlement talks are frozen and the 
Georgian government is losing faith in the Friends' process 
at a time when it needs Western support. 
 
¶3.  (U)  Point of Contact/Reporting Deadline:  Posts should 
report the results of this demarche to Anneliese Reinemeyer 
in IO/UNP (202 647-0046 or in the GAL)  by Wednesday, May 7. 
Please send an info copy of the response to USUN. 
 
---------- 
Background 
---------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Georgia plans to table its IDP and refugee 
resolution in the UNGA on/around Friday, May 9.  The Georgian 
Mission is reluctant to delay the vote for fear that it will 
not be able to secure another discussion before Georgia's May 
21 election.  The Mission noted that it had pulled the 
resolution previously at our request (in the fall of 2007) 
but would lose credibility if it did so again.  Therefore, we 
do not anticipate that Georgia will delay consideration 
of its resolution. 
 
¶5.  (C) While the western Friends (UK, France, Germany, and 
the U.S.) originally planned to support the resolution, the 
UK, France, and Germany are now opposed for reasons of 
principle and refuse to even discuss the content of the 
resolution with the Georgians.  The issue of principle 
concerns the divide in competencies between the UN Security 
Council and the UN General Assembly.  Article 12 of the UN 
Charter provides that the UNGA shall not make any 
recommendations with regard to a dispute or situation while 
the Security Council is exercising its Charter functions in 
respect of the dispute or situation.  The UK, France and 
Germany have thus taken the position that the UNGA should not 
adopt this resolution because the UNSC is already "seized" 
with the situation in Georgia, therefore, the UNGA should not 
deal with this issue.  At the same time, the UK Mission in NY 
reports that Georgia cannot make any changes to the 
resolution that will make it acceptable to the UK -- ever. 
As a result, the UK will likely abstain while making a strong 
statement in support of Georgian territorial integrity.  The 
French Mission told USUN "the timing and idea of this 
initiative are appalling . . . It will harm relations between 
the UNGA and UNSC and make it more difficult for the UNSC to 
defend its competency."  The French Mission has indicated 
that, in the best case scenario, France will abstain.  Based 
on reporting from the UK Mission, Germany also plans to 
abstain. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) The Department did consider the Article 12 issue 
and also had concerns.  In principle, we agree that Article 
12 should play an important role in delineating the 
respective roles of the General Assembly and the Security 
Council, and that we and the international community have a 
strong interest in rolling back erosion that has occurred 
over time.  That said, the General Assembly has in fact 
adopted resolutions that would appear to encroach on the 
principles that we believe should apply under Article 12 on 
numerous occasions.  Article 12 does not prevent the UNGA 
from adopting resolutions on issues covered by the UNSC as 
long as they do not contain recommendations. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) We would like to refocus the UK, France, and 
Germany on how this resolution fits into our larger policy on 
Georgia.  W e fear that the UK, France, and Germany would be 
sending a very negative signal of their lack of support to 
the Georgians by abstaining, especially in light of Russia's 
recent actions including: 
 
-- withdrawal from CIS sanctions on Abkhazia on March 6, 
-- Putin,s instructions to Russian ministries to establish 
relations with their counterparts in Abkhazia on April 16, 
-- the downing of a Georgian UAV apparently by a Russian 
fighter on April 20, and 
-- the Russian decision to increase peacekeepers in Abkhazia 
without advance notification on April 29. 
 
Georgian buy-in to the UN-chaired Friends of the Secretary 
General (FOSG) peace process is at an all-time low due to a 
complete standstill in the negotiations.  The current 
bottom-up approach on developing CBMs is not working.  We 
believe that the FOSG need to refocus on the core issues of a 
political settlement of Abkhazia's status and IDP and refugee 
returns, and this resolution helps to do this. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) At the same time, we would like to do everything 
possible to maintain Friends, unity, in order to ensure that 
a Georgian victory in the UN does not turn into a devastating 
embarrassment for Georgia.  It is possible 
that Georgia may be able to secure enough votes to approve 
the resolution, but if the western Friends oppose the 
resolution, the abstentions may far outnumber the votes to 
approve.  Russia could exploit the result as a lack of 
support for Georgia, and the Friends process would be further 
weakened.  While we fully understand the concerns about 
maintaining a divide between the mandated functions of the 
UNSC and the UNGA, we do not feel that we should make that 
issue the focus here, or that this resolution threatens or 
undermines the efforts of the UNSC in Georgia in any tangible 
way.  Rather, in our view, the resolution would further the 
Friends' overall goals for moving the Georgian peace process 
forward. 
RICE