Army Reservists Beaten By Minister at Orpholo Military Base

Army Reservists Beaten By Minister at Orpholo Military Base

Reservists from the #17 Adjaran Army Reserves Unit, stationed at the Akhaltsikhe Orpholo military base, gave statements to say they were whipped by the Georgian Defense Minister on 14th July. This happened the day before the reservists were due to leave the base. On top of physically assaulting the troops, Irakli Okruashvili declared that the unit was to be dismissed.

One of the reservists spoke anonymously about the incident at the Orpholo military base, as – “I do not want to put myself in danger or lose my head... That’s why, please don’t name me. The Defense Minister personally hit some of us; the rest were beaten by his representatives. They did not let us say anything; they opened fire at our feet to keep us from moving. The Minister’s representative grabbed me by the hand…this bruise is likely to last for a long time. He swung a gun butt at me, but I avoided it and it hit me on my chest. I still have the mark from it.”

Everything began as follows: “Just a day before leaving, some reservists had a quarrel with some locals. Okruashvili arrived at the scene of the incident by helicopter with twenty members of his Special Forces unit. They noticed some drunken soldiers there, who declared that they were from an Adjaran Reservists Unit. At the same time one of our reservists came and informed us that, “several of our boys had been killed, lying on the riverbank” (this later turned out to be a false alarm). On hearing this nearly 200 reservists hurried there.”

Okruashvili landed on the river by plane to find out the situation. Although he did not find any of the reservists who went to raid the village, he did come across one drunken reservist, named Komakhidze. According to eye-witnesses, “the Minister made a remark to him. Komakhidze might have not recognized the Minister and that’s why he did not take well to this remark. Komakhidze hit the Minister. In response to this behavior he was beaten so badly that…nowadays his health is in the poorest condition, he was taken to hospital in Tbilisi”.

Irakli Okruashvili went from the river to reservist’s camp. He ordered them to stand in a line. One of the reservists joined the formation a bit late. He asked permission to join the formation from the Minister. Okruashvili rebuked him for being late and even took him by collar. “The reservist avoided the blow from his [the Minister’s] hand by hitting him and he even kicked him. He then managed to escape and joined our formation. The insulted Minister followed him cursing. The scuffle was calmed down by a warning shot from the Special Forces members,” recalls the respondent.

Soon the formation was joined by Adjaran MP and head of Unit 17, Kakha Surguladze: “Surguladze introduced himself and reported to the Minister. First Okruashvili rebuked him and added some unquotable words too. Kakha Surguladze did not forgive him for this and threatened him saying - “You will be punished for that”. After that the Minister slapped him. Special Forces members supported him and they beat the head of the reservists with gun butts and kicked him. The unarmed reservists were threatened that they would be shot if we attempted to help him. Minister Okruashvili cursed us in the most unquotable terms.

After that he ordered the unit to be dismissed within half an hour. Then he made us leave the HQ - we were made take off our uniforms, and those who had civilian clothes, left the unit dressed in them. Some of us borrowed clothes from others. Many left the place in slippers and shorts. We walked 15 kilometers from the base and the Minister’s representatives followed us. We were categorically forbidden to stop near the central highway. They pushed us to a place some distance from the road. There were half-dry haystacks, we got through them and spent a night there.”

The anonymous reservist has no hope of finding the truth: “On the day before we left, we handed back our guns and some of us drank too. Drunken soldiers went to the nearest village and started a riot. The whole village expressed their anger at this. Actually, they even used a knife there, but the man who did it was a contractor although he said he was a reservist. I am very sorry that we had only one day left and that we had to leave in this way. It is really crime that they drank and caused a riot in the village, but the guilty people must be found. Must all of us be punished with the same whip? I look terrible, after having been treated like that.’

These facts were categorically denied in Kedi Regional HQ. The Chief of the HQ, Zebur Ananidze declares: “Nothing happened there. The reservists were neither assaulted orally nor physically. We arrived there on the previous day and then we left together. That is fraudulent information.”

Davit Gatenadze, a Councilor from the Kedi district states the opposite: “We received information about some incident happening there and arrived there at midnight. When we reached the place, the situation had been calmed down by the Minister and the Armed Forces.”

The Councilor states that the Minister “is a human being too, and seeing the uniformed people’s behavior, he could not help himself”.

Kakha Surguladze does not deny the incident but does not want to speak with journalists. “I will speak about the incident with men; I don’t want to deal with the press. I am healthy and I am at work.”

The incident is denied by Vakhtang Chelidze, Chief of the Adjaran HQ. “Whoever invented and sung this story - interview him”, he declared on the phone.

Reservists from Unit 23 got 100GEL and allowances for electricity. As for Unit 17, dismissed after the incident, they have not received this sum yet.

Maka Malakmadze, Batumi