Either Be a Councilor or Be an Army Reservist

Either Be a Councilor or Be an Army Reservist

Councilors from villages in the Gori region and school principles have been training at Orpholo military base for some time now. An end to the training of several thousand reservists in South Georgia is not expected yet. Teachers from the schools, with principles enrolled at the military base are worried by the training.

Nino Bedoshvili, a school-teacher, told the Human Rights Information and Documentation Centre that she has not received her salary because the principal’s has been away as a reservist for a month. She, along with other teachers, is waiting for principals in the reserves to be released from the Orpholo military base so they can return to work and release teachers salaries.

The village councilors face a more complex situation. If any of them cannot manage to recruit 20-25 people to be sent into the reserves, they will certainly resign. This directive was given by the region’s Governor Mikheil Kareli himself. Despite this threat, many of the councilors could not recruit the desired number of reservists and decided to fill the ranks with themselves and colleagues. The ranks were also filled by high-ranking officials from the Regional Administration. The Governor, along with his deputies, is now being trained at the Orpholo military base.

Prior to this, Akaki Bobokhidze, Chairman of the National Guard Department, valued the level of reservist training in Gori. Bobokhidze expressed his discontent about those reservists’ training in Gori, who were supposed to be sent to Osiauri Orpholo military base by Deputy Governor Marlen Nadiradze. The local reservists’ training was at Marlen Nadiradze’s disposal.

Marlen Nadiradze initially agreed with Akaki Bobokhidze, but shortly afterwards the reservists trained by him were taken to Orpholo anyway, where they remain.  “Untrained” reservists were added by village councilors and school principals. As we were informed, the number of people bitten by snakes and stung by scorpions is increasing. They even say in Gori that one reservist was killed by a scorpion sting. According to Russian news agencies, three soldiers at the Orpholo military base died during training. The Georgian side however calls the Russian journalists ‘misinformers’, but refused to comment on this issue itself.

Saba Tsitsikashvili, Gori