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People Blow up on landmines Every Month in Georgia

January 18, 2007

Mine.gifTerritories in Georgia, where landmines were planted years ago, still seriously threaten Georgian population. Accidents, when people blew up on the landmines, occur very frequently. The last accident happened on January 14 in the village of Ternali in the Tskaltubo District. Grandfather and a nine-year-old grandchild died on the scene. Six-year-old Keti Chagunava had her eye badly injured after the accident. Experts demand maps of the area from Russia to eradicate the problem of the landmines finally.

As for the accident in Tskaltubo, family members of the dead people said that grandfather-Guram Chagunava, and his grandchild went to the forest behind their house to get some fire-wood. They found a box in the forest and tried to open it. Unfortunately, the box blew up. Six-year-old Keti lost her eye. Doctors for the Zhvania Pediatrician Clinics said that now the girl is out of danger.

Dozens of people blow up on the landmines every year in Georgia. Some of them even get disabled for ever. Such accidents happen not only in conflict zones, but also in the territories where Russian military bases were located in the past. There are several reasons that hinder the process of removing the landmines from the area. It is completely impossible to carry out the removable activities on the territories which are out of the Georgian jurisdiction. As for other territories within the Georgian jurisdiction, corresponding bodies do not have maps of the shelled territories.

According to the Georgian National Committee of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly, 682 people were blown up on the mined territories in Abkhazia. 150 people out of whom died, the rest of them were either badly wounded or injured. There is not exact statistics regarding the exact number of explodes in the Tskhinvali Region and other territories.

As for the explodes on the Abkhazian territories since 1992, the statistics is the following: 49 accidents happened in 1992; 158 accidents happened in 1993; 125- in 1994; 48-in 1995; 36-in 1996; 65-in 1997; 102-in 1998; 27-in 1999; 7-in 2000; 21-in 2001; 20-in 2002; 5-in 2003; 6-in 2004, 15-in 2005. There is not exact estimated number for accidents in 2006, yet.

Aleksandre Rusetski, the head of the Committee said, that the problem can be resolved, if dangerous areas are marked. He also added that, though the government promised them to assist, there is no real outcome, yet. “International community has an important experience in this field. Their experience shows that there is much to be done here. If we cannot carry out the operation to remove the landmines from the territories, at least we can mark the mined areas. (For example, stretching a special band or fixing some more protective things round the territories). In this case, everybody will know that they might face danger to enter the marked territory and the government will not be responsible for their damages.”

Rusetski said that initially the government should give information to the people about the landmines, their visual and composition description, as well as upcoming danger when dealing with it. “Special lessons must be given at schools. Pupils should learn description of a landmine and when it blows up. The process should involve the whole system on both governmental and non-governmental levels. The principal topic is to turn the problem into a state’s primary policy. Unfortunately, lack of maps of the mined territories caused serious problems for us.”

We have mined territories besides conflict zones as well. For example, in the Sagarejo district, two men blew on the landmine in January and February, last year. Everywhere, where the Soviet Union’s military bases were located, we have similar problems. Mined territories are in Akhaltsikhe, Akhalkalaki, Sagarejo, Vasiani, the Telavi Airport, Mtskheta and Tbilisi.

As for the government’s position regarding the problem, they stated at the office of the State Minister, that we do not have similar problems on the territories which are under Gregorian jurisdiction. However, they cannot be responsible for the territories out of their control. “There are places in Abkhazia, like villages of Shroma and Lata which are controlled by the Abkhaz. It is impossible to remove shells there. The government will manage it after we regain our territories,” it is the position of the officials from the State Ministry.

Temur Sakhokia, former representative of the Engineering Service Department within the Defense Ministry, Lieutenant-in-Chief, who was decorated with the Gorgasali reword, is one of the victims. He lost his upper limbs while he was removing landmines from the shelled territories. He said that corresponding bodies do not have the exact information where and how the shells are planted in Georgia.

 Temur Sakhokia said that “In Abkhazia, I took active part in removing the landmines from the territories. For the first time, I was shot by a sniper, for the second time I blew up on the landmine. Although I knew the territory was mined, I carried out special operations there. As a result I lost both of my upper lambs. A monitoring group must be set up in order to eradicate the problem. We also should demand from Russia maps and schemes describing the territories where Russian bases were located. It is bad we do not know how mines are planted in our territory and what kinds of landmines were used there. If we do not receive exact information, searching of the territories will take much time. Besides that we will probably have many victims during the search.”
 
The respondent said that the schemes from Russia must give detailed information about the mined territories. He recalled one fact, when fraudulent information resulted in tragedy. “I well remember the military unit located in Mtskheta during the Soviet Regime. I was a deputy chief of the unit. They told us that only tutorial landmines were planted on the territory, which had only loud noise and could not injure a person. However, the search showed that there were several valid landmines planted in the area together with tutorial ones. Several people died that day. So, we must remove every landmine from our territory because it is too dangerous. The landmine can endure 50-200 years in the earth and nobody can know when it blows up.”

Eka Gulua

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