Mari Otarashvili, Akhalgori
A very important document, so called Form # 9 will not be issued in Akhalgori district for two weeks. The reason is illness of the district notary. The local officials state the notary is ill and he will continue his activities in a week for sure. Meanwhile, the passengers will not face any problems when traveling from Akhalgori to Tbilisi and vice versa.
Form # 9 is a document like residence certificate with a photo which indicates name and address of the person. In order to get the document, an applicant needs 4 photos, copy of the birth certificate and ID confirmed by the Notary from Tskhinvali and residence certificate which is issued by the Akhalgori district council. The representative of the council has office in the Akhalgori district militia in order to support the applicant not to spend much time on visiting the council office.
The mini-bus to Akhalgori was not full when it left Tbilisi; but the passengers overcrowded it near Tserovani.
Before the problems regarding the Form # 9 started in Akhalgori, the situation was completely different – the mini-buses used to leave Tbilisi auto-station overcrowded and used to get empty in Tserovani. Apparently, the document is very important for Akhalgori residents who currently reside in Tserovani and they go to the district to get Form # 9; they speak about the problem loudly.
“What shall we do?! We will not be able to travel without it,” the locals are complaining.
Our trip was interesting because one passenger on the mini-bus was Russian. Everybody was looking at him in surprise; nobody believed that a foreigner, and particularly Russian, was traveling to Akhalgori from Tbilisi.
The mini-bus reached the village Akhmaji – Georgian check-point without any obstacles. The driver collected passengers’ IDs and showed them to the Georgian police. Lately, more police officers patrol at the Georgian checkpoint than before. Maybe, their number was the same before too but we did not see them. Now, about 10 police officers are standing near the checkpoint maybe because of the nice weather or because Form # 9 is distributed in Akhalgori. Several officials from the security department are with them too. Several policemen are looking at the road; others are looking at the tents of Russian soldiers through the binocular.
After the driver gave IDs to the police officers, one of them called the Russian passenger out of the mini-bus. This man turned up a journalist of the news website Kavkazki Uzel and he was traveling to Akhalgori to prepare reportage there.
The Russian journalist told us he had all necessary documents – visa and other official notifications – in compliance with the law in Georgia and he should not have faced any problems except keeping him at the Georgian checkpoint for 30 minutes. The Georgian police officers thoroughly studied the details about his traveling by calling at various institutions. Finally, Gregory Shvedov – the journalist for the Kavkazki Uzel – did not face any problems on the Georgian checkpoint.
Several meters away, we had to go through the Ossetian checkpoint.
-Provide your IDs,” the Russian frontier called out from the booth in Georgian language.
-Oho, they have learned Georgian?! – an old man got surprised.
-Well, I hope we will not forget Georgian language while they learn our native language,” a woman smiled bitterly and gave her ID and its Russian translation confirmed by the notary to the Russian officer.
It is noteworthy that Russian copies of the Georgian IDs have been requested at Russian checkpoints since January, 2010. Initially, they requested only translation but now, they pay attention to the original IDs too in order to identify the validity of the copy. It is also noteworthy that after the Form # 9 is in force the so-called translations of the IDs will not lose power because Russians do not recognize those documents yet. Consequently, the passengers will need the Form #9 at the Ossetian checkpoint which is next Russian one. In total, a passenger has to go through three checkpoints –Georgian, Russian and Ossetian - when they are traveling from Tbilisi to Akhalgori.
The passengers faced some problems at the Ossetian checkpoint on Monday and Wednesday. They were sent back to Akhalgori because they did not have Form # 9.
As it was clarified, most Akhalgori residents had not taken the document. So, the Akhalgori district militia prolonged the process of issuing the documents.
Before discussing the deadline for the procedures, I will continue the story of the passengers.
The Russian journalist hoped he could easily continue his way from the Russian checkpoint since he did not face any problems at the Georgian one. Unfortunately, he was mistaken. The Russian frontiers told the driver to continue their way with all passengers except Russian journalist. When the mini-bus started off Gregory Shvedov waved his hand politely to the passengers to say good-bye to them.
The mini-bus entered Akhalgori when we passed through the Ossetian checkpoint near the village Mosabruni.
Akhalgori was not as noisy as it was on the previous day. There was such a noise on the previous day in Akhalgori that a person could think it was a different town. The people were walking along the streets with sheets of papers; some of them were hurrying to the militia station; others to the de-facto administration and to executive committee.
Yesterday Akhalgori was empty again
As we found out, the notary for whom people were waiting for the document was not in office again. It is practically impossible to prepare the form # 9 without him.
The representatives of the de-facto Migration Department of South Ossetia, who often appear at the Ossetian post, reported that the notary was ill and could not come to the office for two weeks. Consequently, people will not be able to get the form # 9 until he recovers. They also added, that until every Akhalgori resident gets the document, passengers will be asked for the document at the Ossetian checkpoint (where it was mostly requested).
We also tried to find out why the Russian journalist faced a problem and what happened with him. According to one of the Ossetian law enforcement officer at the Russian post, he was sent back to Tbilisi because he did not have accreditation from Tskhinvali.
Form #9 will be issued till the end of the month. This document will be valid for one month; in January-February of 2011 Ossetian passports will be distributed in Akhalgori district.
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