Manon Bokuchava, Kvemo Kartli
Residents of the village of Sabirkendi in Marneuli district request fair distribution of plots among them. 67-year-old Alik Omarov said that he has been unsuccessfully seeking justice for five years. “Can one man hold the land of 300 families?! Tenant Zahir Gajiev got hold of the land illegally and does not allow us to cultivate the land to earn our living,” said Omarov at the protest demonstration on June 21.
Peasants from Sabirkendi requested the Kvemo Kartli regional governor to resolve their problems. “They are sending us from one to another institution. We cannot understand who really can assist us. The real person, who can attend to our problem, has not appeared for 5 years already. There are no factories in the district to get employed. The only source for the income is the land and it is urgently important for us. The tenant insults and physically assaults us. A month ago, he beat our neighbor Bakhadur Gasanov,” said the demonstrators. One of them took us to Gasanov who could not speak Georgian. “Gajiev leased 15 hectares of land to me. Several months later he met me together with his son and said he had to lease the land to another person for 200 GEL. I said it was violation of our agreement but he beat me.”
On the protest day the deputy regional governor Khusein Iusupov met the villagers. When the people left the meeting they said they believed the regional administration would keep their promise. “They will start to resolve our problem in a week. We will be able to privatize the lands leased to one person. We all trust the regional governor because he represents the state.”
Big part of the villagers was discontent with the information. “Nobody will resist Gajiev. He gives some “presents” to the district governor and the latter keeps silent. When he beat Gasanov the police started to argue with us instead resolving the problem.”
The Human Rights Center interviewed Khusein Iusupov. He said the problem of the land has been urgent in the region for many years. The privatization process has been implemented gradually. “In 1997, the lands were leased out to several people. Consequently, many families remained without privatization. We will interfere in this case as far as the law allows us to do it,” said the deputy governor.
Unlike him, Marneuli district governor Zaza Dekanoidze, who is blamed to accept presents from the tenant, said that privatization will not assist the residents of Sabirkendi.
“About ten years ago, the land was leased to one person. According to the Georgian law, during the privatization the tenant of the land has advantage over others. Consequently, the same person purchased the land who had leased the land in accordance to the law from the ministry of economics. On the other side, the residents of Sabirkendi are also right. The leaser deceived those people. He had registered those people as sub-tenants. Gajiev promised the people to give some land but it did not happen. The district administration unsuccessfully requests the population and Gajiev to reach agreement. As for the privatization process in the region, it will not deal with the private property. The free lands will be privatized. Residents of Sabirkendi can also take part in the process but they want the land where they worked for many years,” said Zaza Dekanoidze.
Dekanoidze added that he is no friend of Gajiev. He got in touch with him only because of the problems about the land.
Other villages of Kvemo Kartli region also face similar problems. The government speaks about inviolability of private property. Various state institutions provide different information to the people who apply to them regarding the land problems.
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