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Internally Displaced Persons Will Be Evicted in Zugdidi (Part II)

May 23, 2007

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Zugdidi based non-governmental organizations are helping IDPs residing in the former building of Association for the Deaf and Dumb. The NGOs are deeply concerned regarding the situation and are going to send an urgent appeal to the Georgian Parliament. The authors of the appeal consider that the eviction of IDPs from the communal centers might have negative influence on future events and violate the rights of IDPs to adequate accommodations.

According to the representatives of the NGOs, the owners of the building are trying to use the amendments made to the Civil Code and the Law on Police to evict the IDPs from the building. At the same time, the process of registering IDPs on their temporary accommodations (communal centers) has been hindered, and IDP families and single IDPs cannot receive their registration cards.

 “Based on the fact that nearly 70% of the buildings where IDPs reside are private properties, the evictions of these people might be carried out by violating their rights. The process is likely to continue and consequently the IDPs will remain without shelter.

The eviction started when the Georgian government enacted the state strategy on IDPs. Civil society had played an active part in creating the strategy. The strategy envisaged the creation of conditions for IDPs to return to their homes safely and to provide them with proper living conditions.

We think that the Georgian Parliament should draw its attention to the protection of the IDPs’ rights and to the Georgian Government’s responsibility to follow the Georgian Law on “Internally Displaced Persons-IDPs”.

Regarding the above-mentioned circumstances, non-governmental organizations for IDPs appeal to the Georgian Parliament with the following proposals:

1. Review the amendments made to the Civil Code, Article 172, as well as the Georgian Law on Police (Article 9) and make final decision to protect the IDPs from illegal eviction.
2. Discuss the situation of IDPs residing in communal centers without any registration, and enact corresponding mechanisms to protect those people;
3. In order to regulate the resettlement of IDPs, and more precise, in order to grant adequate compensation or alternative accommodations to IDPs in the case of eviction, (as it is envisaged in the Georgian Law on Internally Displaced People-IDPs, Article IV), a joint monitoring communal must be established with the representatives of the government, non-governmental organizations and IDPs.
4. Recommend corresponding governmental bodies to create and enact regulation on resettlement, which will be obligatory for governmental bodies and private person,” stated the appeal.

Representatives of NGOs hope that the Parliament will take their opinion and experience into consideration in order to resolve current problems. In addition to that, the NGOs are ready to cooperate with the government.

The owner of the building Nikoloz Kvikviani set June 1 as a deadline for IDPs and they have only nine days to leave the building. The IDPs claim that they will not be able to empty the building in such a short time, and besides that, they do not have any alternative place to move to. “They tell us to leave the building because it is their property. It is not easy to empty the rooms until June 1. We have lived here since 1998 with the Ministry’s permission. The new owner started the reconstruction of the building and built up warehouses. There used to be a laundry facility in the area and they have destroyed it too,” said Fridon Kajaia, an IDP. Like Kajaia’s family, 32 more IDP families reside in the former building of Society for Deaf and Dumb, and they have already petitioned several organizations for help. Unless the authority or the property owner satisfies their demands and grants them either alternative accommodations or compensation, they are threatening to hold large-scale protest demonstrations. They said that all IDPs who live in Zugdidi will join the demonstration.

The total number of IDPs residing in Zugdidi is 60,000, and half of those live in communal centers.

Nana Sajaia, Zugdidi

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