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Evicted Families Demand Meeting with Investor

September 17, 2007

Five families were evicted from the hostel of the factory for the processing of non-ore materials in Khelvachauri district. District policemen evicted them under threat and after 6:00 PM they did not let people to take their things out from the hostel.

The factory is located near the Chorokhi River in Khelvachauri district. Families of five workers have lived in one of one-storied buildings in the area for twenty years already. They said that the former director of the factory, Roman Kavtaradze, allowed them to lodge in the building. “Former boss let us to live in here. The factory administration was to give flats to employees but since they could not do it, the director allowed us to lodge in the hostel. There were documents on the fact and they might be saved in archive,” said former worker of the factory and resident of the hostel, Jemal Kakhidze.

The inhabitants said that district policemen evicted them from the place under threat. “They were abusing us and threatened to kick us out into the street unless we left the building within five days. We have left the building but what can we do with that 2 thousand lari now? People, evicted from other entities, are paid at least seven thousand lari and why have they oppressed us?” asked the inhabitants.

Representatives of the district police station do not comment on the situation.

Evicted people said that some families were given three thousand lari, while others received only two thousand lari. Thus, they doubt that the investor has allocated more money for their compensation. “We demand meeting with the investor. We doubt certain people appropriated our money. The director called and offered the money,” said Gulnara Kakhidze. The inhabitants received the money but did not sign documents.

Director of the factory, Nukri Dolidze, denies the above-mentioned fact and claims that “I do not know if compensation was given to people. The factory was sold to Turkish investor. It is state property and temporary residents should have left the building.”

In order to hear the answers on other questions, the director sent us to Davit Jaiani, Bankrupt Manager of the factory. However, it was impossible to get in touch with Jaiani.

Representatives of the Privatization Department within the Adjara Autonomous Republic’s Ministry of Finances and Economics stated that “The factory has Bankrupt Manager and our department was not involved in the process.”

Khelvachauri District Municipality does not have information about the purchase of the factory. “We do not know anything about the purchase. We cannot take responsibility to assist people residing in the enterprises that are not registered at our department. However, we will support them out of compassion,” said Levan Dolidze, Deputy Governor.

Evicted people try to take their things out of the building because after six o’clock policemen will not let them in anymore. “We are removing the window and door frames from the building because we repaired the building with our expenses. If we leave them here, nobody will reimburse us that money. We are in a hurry to take everything out till the evening. Our cattle are till here. After 6:00PM their guards protect the building and we will not manage to take out anything,” said the people.

Bakur Bolkvadze, lawyer for the Human Rights Center’s Adjara Office, said that the rights of the inhabitants are violated. “When the factory goes bankrupt, it has independent manager to run the enterprise; however, the population’s complaints are not groundless because they received different amounts of compensations. Their demand to meet the investor is also legal. If they had met the Turkish businessman, they would have explained the situation to him better than mediator.”

It is noteworthy that there is no official statistics about homeless families in the Khelvachauri Municipality.

Maka Malakmadze, Batumi

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