IDPs from Kutaisi Went on Strike for Unidentified Time

“Our decision is final. We will not give up our strike until the authority makes suitable decision. We are fed up with living in fear of being left in the street. We have become IDPs once and we do not want it to endure again,” it is a decision of IDPs from Kutaisi.

Today, IDPs residing in the hotel “Kutaisi” held protest demonstration in front of the hotel. Their demand was to receive enough compensation to buy flats. “They offer us 4500 USD. We cannot buy even a cellar with that money in Kutaisi. We demand them to increase the compensation. Otherwise we will not leave the hotel. Yesterday we learned that the owner is starting the reconstruction in May, so we are likely to be evicted from the hotel,” said Shota Milorava, a resident of the hotel.

Kakha Kukhianidze, a representative of the Company Interinvest, an owner of the hotel, said that “Late in April reconstruction works will start. The building will be wrapped up and the territory will be fenced, etc. If IDPs do not leave the hotel on their own, corresponding measures will be taken.”

Tomorrow IDPs from Tskaltubo will join the demonstrators to express their solidarity. They said that protest demonstrations will be permanent. Old demonstrators do not exclude that they might go on hunger strike too.

Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi