Victims of Earthquake Remain Homeless for the Second Time (part II)

The victims of earthquake, having learned they faced eviction from their houses, thought that the court would find out the reality. Consequently, they waited for the court decision. However, they applied to the parliament for help. (photo: Victims of earthquake)

One of the victims, Irma Basilashvili said that Nino Burjanadze, the chairman of the Parliament, did not reply them. Mikheil Machavariani, the deputy chairman of the Parliament, sent mediation to Akaki Gongladze, the chairman of the fund. Machavariani wrote in the mediation that the documents of the victims were in order and they should not have any problems in future.

Meanwhile, the case was being discussed at the court. The chronology of the trail decisions is too complicated. “On January 17 2005 Gongladze appealed to the Mtatsminda-Krtsanisi district Court and demanded to evict Basilashvili from her flat. On February 6, 2006 Judge Leila Arkhoshashvili satisfied the appeal and concluded that the family was to leave the flat.”
 
“On March 6 2006 the victim appealed against the verdict at the Appeal Court. Representatives of Gongladze did not appear at the trial. However, Judge Paata Katamadze passed verdict without accused side and abolished the conclusion about the eviction.”

“The fund appealed against the above-mentioned verdict at the Appeal Court. The judge decided to move the victim family into another flat. February 6, 2006 decision # 2/6763 of the Tbilisi City Court states the following: “Giorgi Aleksaniani must be exiled from the flat and moved into a one-room flat that will be empty by the time of eviction.”

The victim visited the flat in the Moscow Ave herself. “I arrived at the flat in this address and found out that ten people already lived there. It is a hostel in the Moscow Avenue,” said Basilashvili. The information is real and the journalist for the Human Rights Center visited the flat herself. Akaki Gongladze confirmed the information as well. However, he added that present residents of the flat are going to be evicted and the new family will move in there.

The victim appealed the last verdict at the Supreme Court-the last instance. According to the Supreme Court’s January 22, 2007 decision, the case remained unsettled, thus the conclusion of the Appeal Court remained valid.

The financial police got interested in this complicated situation too. The victims hope that the truth will be soon found out. They applied to the financial police and part of them made testimonies to them. Another part of the victims will also be interrogated in future. As for Basilashvili’s case, her 15 days limit expires on February 28 and she does not know what will happen with them on that day.

 Case #2  

The court concluded that one more victim family of Vardo Dzavashvili should leave flat. They have to leave the flat until March 1. The victim retold the story herself:

“In 1996, our house in Nadzaladevi district burnt down. Only walls remained from it. We started to rebuild it in order to make it possible to live in it for some time, though not very comfortably.  After April 25 2002 the earthquake our house was finally destroyed after a landslide. On that very evening the whole district was exiled because it was impossible to stay there. The fund granted us with a flat in the Fonichala District B/L # 20. However, I did not receive the transfer report like many other families. I have been living in this flat since December 2002. However, Gongladze claimed that I am not victim of earthquake and there are no documents on me in the fund. I wonder, if there are really no documents, how investigators found me to ask whether I had bribed anyone in the fund. Or why did they give me that flat? Where are they going to move my family to if we are evicted? There are all necessary documents in my case materials. I have to leave the flat within fifteen days and I do not know where I should go with my two children, mother-in-law and a husband?”

Dzavashvili can produce a document that proves that this family was inserted in the information bank for socially excluded families.

 Case #3

Mzia Nadirashvili’s family is also a victim of earthquake. Her family has to leave the flat within fifteen days too. Before earthquake they lived in Ksovreli Lane #2. She has epilepsy and is a disabled person of the first group. Marina Nadirashvili, her sister, is her legal representative.

Marina Nadirashvili: “There is a conclusion about our house stating that it cannot be repaired. Since the fund could not find cheap flat for us, we decided to look for it ourselves. Finally we discovered a flat in Varketili district for 4 300 USD. The fund purchased that flat for us on February 17 in 2003 and we moved in. We have been living there since that time. Having not received any documents of property, we started to register the flat ourselves. I discovered quite by chance that Gongladze had declared certain Levan Dzidziguri’s family as a legal owner of the flat on August 11. One fine day, member of Dzidziguri’s family visited me and tried to break into the flat. I applied to the fund after the incident. Gongladze told me I had occupied the flat illegally and he appealed to the court against me. According to the court decision, I have to leave the flat within fifteen days.”

There are a number of similar stories of victim families. All of them are nearly the same- initially the government bought the flats for victims and now they are evicting them from those flats.

(part III) http://www.humanrights.ge/eng_/articles.php?id=611

Eka Gulua