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Residents of Sadakhlo Request that the Border Trade Center be Restored

April 23, 2009

Nona Salaghaia

Nearly 5 000 people have directly lost their incomes after the trade center near the Georgian-Armenian border was closed. Today, they publicly request to have the trade center be restored because their petitions to various institutions had no result. They petitioned to the President of Georgia, to Nino Burjanadze (when she was chairperson of the parliament of Georgia) and to other officials but their appeals were not satisfied. The reason for closing the trade center was the exchange of smuggled goods between the citizens of Armenia and Georgia.

Chairperson of the Georgia-Azerbaijan Congress, Ali Babaev, stated: “The government of Georgia failed to control the border and eradicate the smuggling. I cannot understand why the government cannot eradicate the violations at the border because they have so many frontier police .They should restore the trade center and control the border. They have the resources for that. However, it must be pointed out that closure of the trade center has not resolved the problem of smuggling. Illegal goods are still transported across the border.”

Despite many requests and rallies of local residents the trade center still is closed. The population of Sadakhlo requests the market be restored immediately; otherwise they will have to apply more severe forms of protest. Unless their requests are satisfied the people without income will join the protest demonstrations in the capital.

Ali Babaev said: “The number of people close to the border is estimated to be18 000. After the trade center was closed most of them left Georgia and went abroad to get employment or because they were dependent upon people who lost their income at the trade center. Nowadays, only 4 000 people live there. Most of them have lost income and have become impoverished. They cannot pay taxes and their properties have been confiscated. The government does not bother to improve their living conditions. Although the market was closed, nobody offered alternative occupation to those people.”

The border trade center was closed in 2005. The market was the source of the income not only for the residents of the Marneuli district but for the IDPs from Abkhazia and South Ossetia since 1995. The IDPs sold citrus and apple at this market.

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