Beslan Butba: human resource investment as top priority

-Abkhaz political culture is to have democracy and freedom running through our veins. That is why in this respect Abkhazia has always been more progressive than many other countries in the post-Soviet space. Today we have made no progress developing democratic institutions. On the contrary, the authorities are trying to wind them up completely. Pressure on independent media, abuse of administrative resource. Public organizations are subject to control by authorities. Since the media were hard on the authorities for incompetence, the authorities declared war on them. We are going to encourage free press and freedom of speech. We will have a sound dialogue between authorities and the people.

-The Abkhaz opposition is disunited. Is there a tendency toward unification?

-I wouldn't say the opposition is disunited. More than once we represented a united front and solved issues together.

-A problem raised at an international level is the return of international monitors to Abkhazia. What's your position here?

-Why aren't there international observers in Italy or France? Or the United States of America? Under the Medvedev-Sarkozy plan international monitors must monitor the territory of Georgia that Abkhazia has nothing to do with. If the world community cares about security in Abkhazia, then let it monitor the perimeter of Abkhazia's territory and basin to prevent pirate assaults on civil ships going to our ports.

-Heated discussions are on about those who will vote and who won't. What's your attitude?

-Under Abkhazian law only citizens of the country at least 18 years of age having the passport of Abkhaz citizen in hand can be admitted to voting.

-In case Gal district residents are left without Abkhaz passports wouldn't that mean ethnic discrimination?

-All citizens of Abkhazia regardless of their nationality have the right to vote. But Georgian citizens can't take part in the election of the President of Abkhazia. Gal district residents that have made their choice by rejecting the Georgian citizenship committed no crimes against the Abkhaz state and are fully entitled to obtain passports of Abkhaz citizens. Our party is one of the few political forces advocating large-scale integration of Gal district population. This is a huge, long-term program and not mass distribution of passports to each and all including people that fought against Abkhazia in 1992-1993.

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