Soldiers Armed with Gerber Knives in Villages

Information Center of Kakheti

Defense Ministry of Georgia gave Gerber knives to about 500 people in Kakheti, who took five-day military training in the frame of volunteer military service program. Head of Kakheti office of the political party Free Georgia Giorgi Mosiashvili said men in military uniforms register the people with different political views in the villages.

“On Friday, five-day training of the first stage of the military program “Defend Your Village” finished in the country. Next day, on Saturday, almost every military base received invitation on the second recruitment. Nobody believes that people could learn how to use gun within five days. Today, “leaders” in military uniforms and with Gerber knives, appeared in various villages,” Giorgi Mosiashvili told the ICK.

He said people were selected from already trained reserve army, and government called them “Leaders.” “Their purpose is to study general feeling of village population, to attract more volunteers for reserve army, to register people with different political views, to mobilize trained volunteers in case of necessity, etc,” Mosiashvili added.

Despite many attempts of the ICK, journalist could not get in touch with Salome Makharadze, head of press-service at the Defense Ministry; she did not answer phone calls.

Volunteers were recruited to reserve army in April of 2012. An officer from the Defense Ministry Nika Lomidze told ICK that reserve soldiers would receive weapon only in case of emergency situation and would have to defend their villages. He clarified that emergency situation meant military operations, extraordinary situation, etc.

A leader of the Georgian Dream Irakli Alasania made first statement about the establishment of armed units. He said if the ruling party loses elections, the government intended to use those groups for civil controversy.

Defense Minister Bacho Akhalaia replied to Alasania’s statement and clarified that Defense Ministry had been creating reserve system for several months but parties would not use them for controversy. “We worked in several regions; reserve service was established and about 40 000 people have joined it. Finally we will have 100 000 volunteers. It will happen in every region; we just started program in the regions close to administrative borders. You should not suspect anything strange behind all these activities; reservists will assist soldiers during military operations and rescue teams during natural disasters; however, they will not be used during controversy between two parties,” Akhalaia said.

On April 9, president of Georgia also made statement about the volunteer reserve service. He said, anybody, who will resist the idea of reserve army, will support the enemy of Georgia.