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Hungry People Went Out Into the Street

January 24, 2007

aqcia3.gifOn January 24, socially excluded and hungry people started protest demonstrations in front of the building of the Georgian Parliament. Pensioners, veterans, unemployed people and teachers demanded to have their rights protected, to live in human conditions and to renew their allowances. They are not going to stop demonstrations and threaten with death.

Demonstrators spread banners in front of the building of the parliament. They made statements through megaphones and asked the MPs to meet them, however nobody paid attention to them. Their demands are various, but the goal is one-to live in human conditions.

Eighty years old Givi Chabukiani, a veteran of the Patriotic War: “I can keep silent regarding my problems, but I cannot fully understand why the veterans with the same status have different pensions. Some of us have more, while the others have less. We appealed the Constitutional Court in vain.  We sent our appeal to the Parliament, but they did not discuss it. We do not need anything special. We need only one thing-the money what we have deserved under the law and that is all. Every year we used to lose some part of the allowances but we did not complain about it. If these people support each other, we will succeed. We will come to the demonstration tomorrow and the day after that, too. We might make them hear us.”

The second reason for the demonstration was the abolished allowances on traveling fees. A certain category of people traveled with the 50% discount by public transport.

Eighty-three years old Mikheil Feikrishvili, a disabled person of the war: “We could travel by underground for free. However, these people try to crush us like ants. Is it fair? They have deprived us from all allowances and now we are not considered living, though we are not dead.   I do not know the law well, but I think when allowances are abolished, the draft law should be brought to the constitution and then the president can make a decree. Officials from the authority do not care about the constitution either.  They act according to their own will. Let them employ our sons to earn enough money to support us.”

One more category of people, who joined the demonstration, was IDPs from Abkhazia. They protest the abolished free transport fees they used to have. In addition to that they were also forced out from their trading places.
 
Natela Rusia: “I have been trading in the area of the Delisi underground station for eleven years already. Seventy-five families have the same problem. Now, they make us leave the area. We demand a new place to trade. We have to earn money to live on. Nobody pays attention to us. The government should send us back home in Abkhazia if they cannot assist us here.”

One of the IDPs, Iamze Gigava said that she will never leave the trading stall and somebody will die in the struggle there. “I am also from Abkhazia. I earned my living by trading in the area. We live in the hardest conditions. We ask the government to give us an alternative location to trade. Otherwise, we will not leave the underground station area until we die. We do not have any other way of supporting our families. Why does the government want us to disappear? Is the government ashamed of the IDPs? I have been sleeping in the underground station for more than a week. Some accident will probably happen there. Those people will never leave the place without blood.”

People with little children also arrived at the demonstration. They threatened to commit suicide unless their pensions were increased. “The minimum pension we get is not enough. There is great unemployment in the country and we live in very poor conditions.  Look, I have come here with my little child. We both are hungry. It is impossible to live on 38 lari a month. This demonstration will have no result. We have to collect some money and appeal to the Strasburg Court. We have to write how the government treats us and why they are killing us with our own hands. You see that nobody gets interested in our problems and they do not even bother to come down to meet us. They are so dishonest,” said Tsiala Kedelashvili.

Veterans of the military forces demand the allowance they had when Shevardnadze was in office. The present government has abolished those allowances for them.

Robinzon Papidze, a Vice-Colonel: “The veterans and pensioners of the military forces demand their abolished allowances to be renewed. Our government started to abolish them in 2005. The rights we gained during Shevardnadze time in office have been reduced 70-80%. We considered that Shevardnadze did not do any good to the people at that time and we made him resign. The new government started to abolish the allowances of poor people which they acquired during the previous government. It is not a democracy and such politics contradicts the promises that Saakashvili gave us during his pre-electoral campaign. The government is losing its contact with the population and it will lead it to a final collapse.”

The demonstrators claimed that the demonstration will be permanent and it will go on until they reach the agreement with the government.

Eka Gulua            

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