Inhabitants of villages near border leave their houses

Village Samtatskaro located on the border of Georgia and Azerbaijan faces great danger. After the blocked of the bridge, which was connected locals to historical Hereti, their living conditions are getting worse. According to statistics, from 480 families, 200 of them leaved Samtatskaro. Peasants are leaving for Turkey, Azerbaijan and Iraq to work their as slaves. The same situation is in Signagi region, village Erisimedi. Shepherds from Azerbaijan take abandoned places.

Bridge on the river Alazani was blocked by the order of financial police of Kakheti department and the representatives of custom department on 31 December, 2005. The ditch on the road to bridge has been filled up by Hingilos living in Samtatskaro for several times, though the representatives of local police and Special Forces dig out the ditch again.

“After the blocking of the bridge, we are not able to meet with our relatives, sisters, brothers and friends. We even cannot go to the graves. According to one part of the government, the reason of the blocking is smuggling. Another part says that the bridge is damaged. None of them gave us the official answer. We have held several protest actions demanding to open the bridge, but, they dispersed our demonstration, forced to leave for homes and threatened, that they would throw us in Alazani River. We could not be able to protest, because they were shooting. We were afraid. We appealed for help to the Parliament, Executive government, Public Defender, Patriarch, opposition…We wrote open letter to the Georgian President, but nobody paid attention to us. Because of such cynic attitude, we began thinking about Azerbaijan citizenship. But it is not easy for us to return to Sahingilo, because the Georgian liturgy, talking in the Georgian language is restricted there. In other hand, we die with hunger here. It is long way from the regional centre. The road is damaged. This bridge was the only hope for us. We have been importing product legally through this bridge and the hospital is also on the other side of the bridge,” says inhabitant of Samtatskaro Hingilo lia Aslamazashvili.

From May 2006, with the effort of the boarder police, the bridge was opened for the pedestrians, though, Heretians are not able to go to Saingilo: “Nowadays, we are allowed to walk on the bridge, but the first village is located 8 kilometers far away from the bridge. It is dangerous to walk on this road, because shepherds located near the road have big dogs and some of our villagers have been bitten by those dogs. Besides this we also have to pass the forest full of wild animals,” says Marina Sardalashvili.

The locals, with the help of the lawyers of the Human Rights Centre appealed to court demanding to open the bridge. The judge of Tbilisi City Court will discuss the administrative case on 11 June.

“According to the documents, there is an administrative-legal act, which confirms the legality of the blocking of the bridge. As the former custom department and current department of incomes of financial ministry’s letter writes, the riding of the transport is aborted on the bases of the letter from the road department. According to the letter, examination of the bridge showed that, it is damaged, and cars must not be allowed to ride on it.”

Besides, the letter reads, considering the fact, the bridge is not included in the road network of common exploitation and to forbid the transport riding on it, is prerogative of the local government. Local government of Dedophlistskaro Municipality denies the relations with the bridge block and confirms it with the letter. What about the boarder and financial police, they declare, that the blocking of the bridge is not their competence. But in reality, they are the most active to block the bridge. We demand to open the road,“ declares the lawyer of complaints the Lia Khuroshvili.

After the blocking of the bridge, the social conditions of the locals are getting worse. The peasants decided to take the loan from the bank and began to look after the vineyards, though, money of the realization grape in 2005-2006, they had not received yet.
“After the advice of the former Minister of Agriculture David Shervashidze, we had brought the ripe grape to the Kedi vine factory, operating under the Ministry of Agriculture. With the help of the government, enterprise received the loan from the “People’s Bank”. The Minister Shervashdze gave the guarantees himself, that we would get money for the realization grape. Later, after the Goergian-Russian strengthening situation, factory went to bankruptcy and the enterprise interrupted the functioning. The bank demanded own amount from the creditors. The court sequestrated vine and the arguing on that case still continues. At present, we, peasants, remains without money, though, hoping that, we would cultivate the vineyard and got little money for bread, we decided, to take some credit, from the Dedophlistskaro branch of “Standart Bank”. In exchange for the credit, we gave a mortrage our own houses and vineyard,” says peasant from Samtatskaro Kakha Sardalashvili.

In 2006, the realization of the grape became a big problem for the peasants of Samtatskaro. A lot of grape rotted, and this happened at that time, when the government was declaring that the “vintage-2006” was very successful and the president was making press conferences in the vineyards of the peasants.

“Last year we gave our grape to cannery of Gurjaani in debt. There was no way, because they did not allow customers to come to us. High-officials get our grape very cheaply and then sell it in high price. This is a mafia, which is governed from Telavi and Tbilisi. We have not received money from Gurjaani factory yet and accordingly, we could not be able to pay our debts. That why, to cover the debts, according to the ragional court decision, they have to take our houses and vineyards. Some of the houses and vineyards has been sold,” – says Roman Kaziev.

The next auction of the Kakheti executive beau roe will be held on 11 June in the Dedophlistskaro regional court.

To cover the debts, the peasants from Samtatskaro decided to go to other countries: “There are 480 families in Samtatskaro. During last years 200 families has been left the village. Some of them left for Turkey, Azerbaijan and Iraq,” declares the representative of Dedophlistskaro municipality.

Locals say, Shepherds from Azerbaijan take abandoned houses. According to the information of Human Rights Centre, the same situation is in other villages of Kakheti near the border.

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti