Cottage or 10 000 USD in Exchange for Life in Akhalgori District

Mari Otarashvili, Akhalgori-Tbilisi

An Akhalgori district resident, who will not abandon the Ksani Valley and declare to the Ministry of Koba Subeliani that he/she has fled from the district, will not receive IDP status. Without this status, they will not receive accommodation, financial allowance or any other assistance from the government.

Only 20% of the population has stayed in the Akhalgori district, which has been beyond the Georgian government’s jurisdiction since the armed conflict that took place in August of 2008. Today, local people (some of them quietly, others in private) state that the government of Georgia is guilty in the depopulation of the district. This journalistic survey also demonstrated that it is nearly state policy to empty the district of Georgian people. An official belonging to a governmental institution confirmed in his interview with the Human Rights Center that an Akhalgori resident who abandons the district shall be provided all the privileges while those who stay will receive nothing.

Nevertheless, the people who stayed in Akhalgori do their best to somehow involve themselves in state programs. They repeatedly appeal and petition to various institutions.

Because of the above claims, the Human Rights Center became interested in several aspects of this case. For example: how many IDPs from Akhalgori received accommodation or compensation? When does a person receive IDP status, and what are the criteria for granting allowances to the IDPs? Lastly, who are those people who received the allowances? 

Before we spoke with the respondents, we petitioned to the ministry of IDPs from the occupied territories as well as the accommodation and refugees and asked them to send us the lists of those Akhalgori residents who received an accommodation or compensation of 10,000 USD. We also requested a list of the people who will receive the allowance in the future.

Our letter was sent to the ministry on September 18. Three days later the Deputy Minister Tamar Martiashvili gave us this reply:

“In reply to your mail we will provide you with the following information: in order to create honorable accommodation for the internally displaced people as a result of [the] Russian aggression in August of 2008, the government, with the support of the International Donor Organizations, 4 379 individual houses were constructed, [we] rehabilitated 1 524 houses and 300 houses were purchased; about 22 000 people were satisfied with the long-term shelter. The victimized people who refused to accept the abovementioned cottages, received compensations of 10 000 USD. The process is regulated by the Georgian government’s resolution # 915 issued on December 25, 2008; by resolution # 10 of January 12, 2009, by resolution # 127 of February 19, 2009, by resolution # 534 of July 24, 2009, by resolution # 267 of March 2, 2010, and by resolution # 856 of July 3, 2010. According to the current data, 1 939 families (4 932 persons) received compensation of 10 000 USD.”

The ministry apparently keeps secret the information about families and persons who received accommodations or compensations. We cannot explain their general question in any other way. We requested from the ministry the official lists with names and surnames-not the general information which they provided and for which we already knew. Providing the official list of names is important because Akhalgori residents claim that this compensation was not equally distributed.

When several Akhalgori residents remained without compensation because they still lived in Akhalgori, several representatives of the de-facto authority of South Ossetia received compensations because of their “secret alliance” with the legitimate authority of Akhalgori district. The representatives of the de-facto administration of the district state that, officials of the legitimate authority brought people from Vladikavkaz whom they paid 5, 000 USD and misappropriated the other 5, 000 USD of the compensation.

We wanted to check the validity of this information. That is why we requested the ministry to send us the concrete list of names in order to better estimate who received a cottage and who received monetary compensation. The Human Rights Center again sent a letter to the ministry on November 2 but this request was in vain.

The head of the Administrative Department of the Ministry of IDPs from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees Valeri Kopaleishvili replied to our questions:

“In general, IDPs received 4, 400 cottages. What criteria had to be met in order for an IDP to receive a cottage? An IDP, who had a wish to be an IDP, received an accommodation. Consequently, everybody who lives in these cottages has IDP status. An IDP is defined as any resident of Akhalgori district who abandoned the district and claims to be internally displaced.  So, they came to the ministry and made a claim of being displaced. Everybody who lives in Akhalgori nowadays is not an IDP.”

We also asked – are there are people who still live in Akhalgori and still received compensations or cottages? Kopaleishvili answered. “I cannot tell you whether similar people really exist or not. Maybe somebody left Akhalgori district, received an IDP status, as well as compensation but later returned to Akhalgori. The Ossetian side might have bribed them and they returned again. Theoretically, the IDPs from Abkhazia can also register the accommodation they received on Georgian-controlled territory but then return to Sokhumi. It is the territory of Georgia and we cannot prohibit them to move. If somebody is an IDP, he/she will receive both status and an allowance. There are IDPs from Akhalgori who receive allowances but there are people who did not abandon the district and continue living there. Any citizen of Georgia, with IDP status, will receive an allowance.”

Kopaleishvili also added that compensation/cottages are still distributed: “Those who deserve it will receive them. But their number is few. If we have omitted somebody, we will assist them now. For example, several people received compensations this week.”

It is significant that virtually no one has been forcefully displaced from Akhalgori. Since the “builders of the new state,” the de-facto leaders don’t need the empty village; nobody is raided or oppressed by them. Moreover, they encourage Akhalgori residents to come back and live as they want, the only exceptions are those individuals who had a certain share in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict in through nineties and afterwards; the other exceptions are the Akhalgori residents who work in Georgian law-enforcement structures.

Kopaleishvili still talks about the forceful displacement and even says that he has not heard that some people have wrongly received financial compensation or  cottages.

“They didn’t deserve what they received! This is a violation. If something like this happened, it should be punished. Personally I don’t have such facts and never had them. I can swear. Write a letter if you want and we will respond,” – stated the head of the administration department of the Ministry.

Gia Chitishvili, the Representative of the legitimate government of Akhalgori who has been in charge of the commission for distributing compensations and cottages.

Gia Chitishvili: “Approximately 1950 families were given a place of residence. More than 400 families received financial compensation. The IDPs who decided to refuse the place of residence received compensation. If there were 6 or more people in the family, they received two compensations. The families with less than 6 members were given only one compensation. Regarding the question as to whether the Akhalgori residents who still live in Akhalgori will be given the compensation or cottage? The Ministry of Refugee and Accommodation does not have an answer. The Akhalgori residents know very well that the Ministry is the one responsible for the issuing of financial compensation and not the legitimate government of Akhalgori. Therefore, you should address the Ministry on all such questions. Our commission stopped functioning when the first distribution ended.”

According to Chitishvili, it’s a lie that people were given cottages and compensations on the grounds of kinship or some other relationship: “Kochishvili (the head of Akhalgori City Council) was given only one flat where he lives now. There are accusations that his mother received separate compensation. As for Kartvelishvili (the Head of the Chancellery of the Akhalgori Legitimate Municipality City Council), they lived separately and received two flats according to the criteria established in the beginning. The representative of territorial organs gave us the lists and all this was distributed according to these lists. It was not me who decided how much compensation people should have been given; how could I have known who lived where in the region? Only the representative of territorial organs knew about it. The compensations were given according to the lists presented by them. Chitishvili, Kochishvili and the governor have nothing to do with it.”

The representative of parliamentary opposition Gia Tsagareishvili was interested in the issue of compensation and cottages. He requested all the documents issued by the Ministry on this issue. He has not received any response yet.

Gia Tsagareishvili: “I have constant contact with the Akhalgori residents. I know that situation is very hard in this sphere. A lot of injustice occurred while distributing the cottages and financial compensation. I think a crime has been committed here. I will say it straightforwardly:  a crime of criminal nature. They chose the people who are linked to the National Movement. The people who were in the local government received the status of IDP. These words have grounds. I base them on the concrete facts.”

Tsagareishvili also noted that both Georgian and Ossetian citizens are among the “non-privileged” Akhalgori residents: “While talking with me, the Ossetian people directly stated that the government representatives told them they were not needed for the state of Georgia and this is why compensation was not given. The facts indicate that the human rights of Akhalgori residents have been violated. It would have been better if they didn’t give the financial compensation or the place of residence to anyone rather than give it with such a selection. It is the betrayal of your people to tell them that they would be given the compensation only if they leave Akhalgori! Instead of helping those people left in Akhalgori, they are [being] oppressed.”

According to Tsagareishvili, some of the financial compensations envisaged for IDPs were given to the officials from Tskhinvali and Vladikavkaz. “The separatists are given this compensation when not all the Akhalgori residents are. So to speak- there are many big violations here. I want to address not only the relevant organ (meaning the Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation), but also the control chamber so they can study the processes concerning this issue.”