Harvest sacrificed to the occupation regime

Lado Bitchashvili, Shida Kartli

The plot of Shalva Chilindrishvili is located in village of Zemo Sobisi in Gori Municipality, 1 km away from the occupation line. When Chilindrishvili went to reap the barley from his 12-hectare plot, he learned that the combine from the occupied territory will reap his harvest. 

“Yesterday, at around 19.30, the combines from the occupied territories came in and reaped the barley on the land of hectare and a half. I planted barley on 12 hectares and Russian soldiers allowed me to harvest only the half. They did not let me in for the second half. When we were cultivating the land, nobody hindered us and now they do not let me into it”, - Shalva Chilindrishvili said. 

Besides Shalva Chilindrishvili, there are few people who encountered the problem. People from Sobisi cultivated the land and two weeks later the Russian soldiers marked the new so called “border” with wooden poles and forbade the owners to enter the plots. The representatives of the occupation regime started to harvest on recently occupied territories yesterday. 

David Oniashvili, the chairman of the Gori Municipality City Council, arrived in Zemo Sobisi and studied the situation on the spot. Oniashvili conveyed the information to the representatives of the central government and international organizations. 

In the second half of the day, Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, the State Minister of Georgia for Reconciliation and Civic Equality, arrived in the village close to the occupation line. She assessed the situation as continuation of the occupation. 

“We have very difficult situation, because a lot of people cannot harvest their own lands. It has negative impact on the social environment of local population. It is not single case and to solve the problem, we have to use the mechanisms, such as Geneva talks and format of the Incidents Prevention and Response Mechanism”, - Tsikhelashvili said. 

On August 31, the representatives of the government will raise the issue of Sobisi during the meeting in the frame of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism in Ergneti.