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Friday,
August 17,
2007, #157 (1424)
By Anna Kamushadze Local police evicted 60 refugee families from the Kakheti hotel in Telavi on August 15, taking criticism from human rights advocates who say authorities did nothing to ease the family's transition to homelessness. Following the sale of the hotel, Rustavi 2 reported, the internally displaced persons (IDPs) were given five days notice to leave the rooms which had been their homes for the last 15 years. IDPs said efforts to meet with the new owner, who is reportedly former vice speaker of parliament Vakhtang Rcheulishvili, were unsuccessful. They did manage to secure a meeting with the head of the Kakheti police and Telavi district officials, who agreed, IDPs claimed, to move back the eviction date to Sunday But something changed, and police showed up Wednesday to tell residents to vacate the building. "They had time to prepare for this. It's not news to them," said Giga Tsigroshvili, a Telavi municipality representative. The IDPs, scuffling with police, were at first refused entry to the building. The refugees eventually agreed to leave quietly, and were allowed in to take out their belongings with the help of moving vans from the local government. "Where can I go with my family? I have five children," asked Maia, one of the newly-homeless IDPs. The hotel's buyer offered each family GEL 10 000, but refugees at first dismissed the sum as not enough to buy any homes in the district. The Ministry of Refugees and Resettlement, however, disagreed. "I think that's a good offer. Personally, I think it would be better for them to live in comfortable two-story houses rather than in one or two room flats," said Maia Razmadze, head of the ministry's press center. Razmadze added that the ministry and the local government gave the IDPs a choice of either taking the money and buying a home, or waiting for the local government to find and fix up alternative lodging for them. The IDPs ultimately accepted the buy-out money, said Lela Taliuri, head of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) in Telavi. Speaking with the Messenger, she said that GEL 10 000 was transferred to each family the day after the eviction. The refugees have ended their protests, she added, but were unsatisfied with what they considered to be a callous attitude on the part of the Ministry for Refugees and Resettlement. According to Taliuri, the law mandates a minimum of five days' eviction notice, after which police have the right to vacate the building by force. "The IDPs were warned and their time ran out Tuesday. Police went to the building, but as it was the 15th anniversary of the Georgian-Abkhazian war they asked for additional time to take out their belongings, which was granted," explained Taliuri. She added that she saw an official letter from the Minister of Refugees and Resettlement expressing intent to help oversee a lawful and fair eviction in Telavi. "But no representatives
from the ministry were there on the day [of the eviction] or today when
the refugees were given their payments. The IDPs felt abandoned. Our
association's demand is that the ministry pays more heed to the fate
of refugees," the Telavi GYLA head said on August 16. Refugees were given
shelters throughout the country in hotels and schools; meant to be temporary,
many still live there today. As those state-owned facilities are sold,
IDPs frequently clash with investors who have other plans for the buildings
they live in. |
Refugees
evicted from Telavi hotel say they have no place to go