Web Portal on Human Rights in Georgia

TBILISI, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Georgia is coming under fire from human rights groups over the forced eviction of hundreds of people displaced by war from state-owned buildings the government hopes to privatise.

Marina Bejashvili, diagnosed with second stage of oncologic disease, lives in the 111th cottage of Khurvaleti settlement. It has been 8 months now the electricity is turned off in her house. Energo-Pro Georgia representatives switched the electricity off as a compulsory measure since her family had a debt of more than 500 lari. According to Transparency International Georgia, these debts are payments for the electricity spent during the cottage constructions.

The public defender shares the inevitability of the long-term eviction of IDPs, issued by the government order (according to 2009-2012 state strategy concerning the IDPs). The ombudsman addresses the Ministry of IDPs from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees to emphasize on the certain aspects of the eviction process.

 

“The Georgian authorities must do more than the bare minimum to provide adequate housing, employment and access to health care to those displaced as a result of the conflicts in the 1990s and the war with Russia in August 2008. Displaced people need more than just roofs over their heads,” – stated Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central Asia Programm director of the international organization “Amnesty International.”

The heat of August reached its peak in Tbilisi. Nobody wants to come out in the 40-50 degrees, but the police is using the “dead season” to attack the open market sellers and IDPs. The open market sellers and IDPs are holding protest rallies, but few people support them in the heat of the summer, except for Lasha Chkhartishvili from the “Conservative Party” and Aleko Shalamberidze from “People’s Party,” the names that appear whenever the talk about the eviction of the open market sellers occurs.

The four storied building of IDPs at #6 Lomuri St has just been restored. The doors and windows have been replaced, the building has been cosmetically repaired, and individual bathrooms have been provided. Even an amusement park for children has been arranged in the yard. The building has been painted  in pink, and  briefly, we can say that the IDPs were provided with human living conditions. However,  there just one little thing that was not considered, and as a result, nearly a half meter of water floods the basement of the renewed building.