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Mother of Dead Son Threatens to Commit a Suicide in front of the Administrative Building

March 26, 2007

gurjaanis_gamgeoba.gif Zina Gagloshvili, a resident of the village of Melaani in Gurjaani District, has asked for the right to move the body of her son from Vladikavkaz to Georgia. Unless her demand is met, she threatens to kill herself in front of the administrative building.

According to Zina Gagloshvili her family was internally displaced in 1991. They were forced out from the village of Berbuki in Gori district, which boarders with Samachablo. “My husband is Ossetian. In the 1990s they used to attack and rob us. Later we were forced to abandon our house. Unless we left, they threatened to kill us. We have been residing in the village of Melaani in Kakheti for sixteen years already. My family is extremely poor. In the summer of 2005 my son, Vano Karapetov, went to Vladikavkaz to work. For some time he used to call us. He worked for a private organization. On November 6, 2006, a strange man visited us at home and told us that Vano had died several days before. They had buried him in Vladikavkaz. We are so poor that we could not pay for traveling to see the grave of our son,” said Gagloshvili. She added that since they heard about the death of their son, she had applied to various bodies to help her, as well as the local authority. However, nobody has assisted them yet.

“I have petitioned many people at the Parliament and the Ministry of Justice. I tried to meet the governor, too, but nobody let me meet him. Now I cannot travel long distances because I have no money, so I only petition the district administration and municipality now. Local administrators think I am crazy and have begun to make fun of me. As a result, my health has become poor. If they do not return the body of my son, I will kill myself in protest in front of the administration building,” said Gagloshvili.

Representatives of the Gurjaani Municipality confirmed the fact the Gagloshvili petitioned them. “Although I read Gagloshvili’s application, we cannot help her at all. We cannot fund the transportation of her son’s body from the budget,” said Zurab Kheviashvili, chairman of the Municipality.

“I do not demand the municipality or the administrative board move my son’s body to Georgia. I asked them to find out who would be able to help me. I want to know who is in charge of similar cases, and do you know how they respond to my questions? “All right. Let’s go. Get on the plane. But, if we cross the border, they will shoot us, and what shall we do then?” They are making fun of me like that,” said the woman.

Six people live in the Gagloshvili’s family: a retired grandmother, daughter-in-law and four grandchildren. The total monthly income of the family is 100 GEL, 38 of which is Zina Gagloshvili’s pension and 62 is the daughter-in-law’s wage. She works as a cleaner at the lemonade factory.
Zina Gagloshvili applied to the NGO Human Rights Centre several days ago.

“The authority is obliged to protect the Georgian citizen. The applicant does not have exact information where her son is buried in Vladikavkaz. They can not find out this information for themselves because of their poverty. The Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and corresponding bodies should assist the Gagloshvilis…” said the lawyer, Nana Chabukadze.

Relatives and the neighbors of the family do not exclude the possibility that Zina Gagloshvili will commit suicide.

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti

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