Knut Vollebaek, the OSCE high commissioner on national minorities, visits breakaway Abkhazia on February 2-5, Abkhaz news agency Apsnipress reported.

Below is an article published by: civil.ge

On February 3, Vollebaek plans to meet with Abkhaz leader, Sergey Bagapsh, as well as breakaway region’s foreign minister Sergey Shamba; PM Alexander Ankvab and education minister Indira Vardania.

On February 4, the OSCE high commissioner will travel to predominantly Georgian-populated district of Gali, where he plans to meet with local officials, as well as will visit villages of Nabakevi, Pirveli Otobaia and local schools.

After visiting Abkhazia in April, 2009, during which he also traveled to Gali, Knut Vollebaek said that the pressure on local ethnic Georgian population was exerted through “the limitation of their education rights, compulsory ‘passportization’, forced conscription into the Abkhaz military forces and restrictions on their freedom of movement.”

Before going to Abkhazia, the OSCE high commissioner held talks in Tbilisi on February 2.
Georgian Foreign Ministry said that the commissioner and Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister, Alexander Nalbandov, discussed human rights situation in the occupied territories, as well as the Georgian government’s strategy towards its breakaway regions.