ABKHAZ POLICY ON REFUGEES INSPIRES SOUTH OSSETIA.

South Ossetia’s Supreme Soviet–People’s Nikhas has passed a resolution stipulating that only those ethnic Georgian refugees who recognize South Ossetia’s constitution and were not involved in the 1992 fighting may be allowed to return to South Ossetia. Such conditions for the return of ethnic Georgian refugees resemble those imposed by Abkhazia. The unrecognized foreign minister of Abkhazia, Konstantin Ozgan, reaffirmed Abkhazia’s insistence on those conditions as stipulated in an April 1994 Abkhaz-Russian-Georgian agreement. Ozgan additionally demanded the reopening of unimpeded communications on the "Abkhaz-Russian border" as a precondition for a "gradual" return of screened Georgian refugees.

The 1994 agreement was signed at a time of maximum Georgian weakness. Now, however, President Eduard Shevardnadze warns that Georgia is prepared to sue the Abkhaz leaders at the International Court of Justice in The Hague on charges of "ethnic cleansing as a form of genocide." (Iviria, January 4; Interfax, January 6)

Uzbekistan Promulgates Law on Political Parties.