Azerbaijan, Baku, May 15 /Trend News, E. Ostapenko/ The South Caucasus region and its people are part of Europe and are bound to have a European future, European Commissioner on Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg said.

"People must not be made hostages to political processes", the Commissioner emphasized. "The region and its people are part of Europe and are bound to have a European future once an appropriate settlement is reached."

"The population must be provided with all the necessary humanitarian assistance and human rights support and the work of confidence building must proceed," Hammerberg said in a report on his fourth visit to the region since August 2008.

"All parties involved should ensure a faster improvement of the human rights situation following last year's armed conflict" said the Commissioner.

Large-scale military operations were launched in South Ossetia at night of 8 August. Georgian troops entered Tskhinvali, capital of South Ossetia. Later Russian troops seized the town and drove Georgian troops back to Georgia. On 26 August, Russia recognized independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and established diplomatic relations on 9 September.

The Commissioner underlined the need to implement in full the six principles for urgent human rights and humanitarian protection which he formulated in the aftermath of the active hostilities. They cover the right to return, the provision of care and support for displaced persons, de-mining, restoring a sense of security among the population, protection and exchanges of detainees and prevention of hostage-taking, and unhindered humanitarian access to the conflict-affected areas.

The report also focuses on specific human rights issues in Abkhazia, including freedom of movement and the right to return, passports and identity documents, and the status of the Georgian language in the schools in the Gali district.

The need for a continued international presence with a clear mandate which can provide security and protect the population was underlined by all of the Commissioner's interlocutors. The UN presence in the region should be extended beyond 15 June 2009.

On Feb. 13, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 1866 extending the mandate of United Nations presence in the region of Georgia and Abkhazia for four months until June 15, 2009. The resolution provides for the possibility of changes in the future format of the mission. The resolution makes no mention of the territorial integrity of Georgia and any reference to Abkhazia's belonging to Georgia, as it was earlier in the UN documents. Former United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia, as in the previous resolution, called a "mission" without geographical definition in resolution 1866.

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