Press Scanner
Prepared by Diana Dundua
Friday, February 29
“Children in Kakheti are using drugs”
Rezonansi reports that children in the eastern province of Kakheti are increasingly abusing drugs, according to the Human Rights Center NGO.
The newspaper cites unnamed statistics which show a daily increase in drug users, and quotes alarmed specialists who say most users are young people aged 10–18.
According to the NGO’s representatives, drug crimes nearly tripled from 2006 to 2007.
“It’s also alarming that despite this situation, there is no clinic in the region where such children can be medically treated [for drug addiction] and that no anti-drug programs are implemented here either,” representatives say.
“IDPs evicted from their homes again”
Despite promises from President Mikheil Saakashvili that refugees will not be booted from their state-provided housing, Akhali Taoba writes, the process of eviction continues.
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) living in Tbilisi’s Mukhiani district protested the evictions in front of the city council building on February 27.
“In the election campaign, Saakashvili promised us he would make the [temporary housing] legally ours, but it looks like we were lied to again,” a protestor said
Others were inclined to give the president the benefit of the doubt.
“I’m sure Mikheil Saakashvili does not know about [these evictions], and if he had known he would have taken appropriate measures,” another IDP said.
The protest went for several hours until a city council official came to promise action on the issue.
“President Mikheil Saakashvili attends groundbreaking ceremony of church in Adjara”
Sakartvelos Respublika reports on the February 27 groundbreaking ceremony for the St. Andrew I church in the western border town of Sarpi.
At the ceremony President Mikheil Saakashvili promised locals the church would be finished within a year.
“I personally will oversee the building of this church, and we will take care of the financial issues. Very soon Georgia will have another beautiful Orthodox church,” Saakashvili said.
“Two-story building burns down in Telavi”
A two-story building in the Kakheti capital of Telavi burned down on February 27, Rezonansi reports.
Three families were left homeless, but no one was killed.
It is thought that old power lines caused the fire. Telavi municipality head Levan Akhalauri told journalists the city would find homes for the families.
Rezonansi reports that children in the eastern province of Kakheti are increasingly abusing drugs, according to the Human Rights Center NGO.
The newspaper cites unnamed statistics which show a daily increase in drug users, and quotes alarmed specialists who say most users are young people aged 10–18.
According to the NGO’s representatives, drug crimes nearly tripled from 2006 to 2007.
“It’s also alarming that despite this situation, there is no clinic in the region where such children can be medically treated [for drug addiction] and that no anti-drug programs are implemented here either,” representatives say.
“IDPs evicted from their homes again”
Despite promises from President Mikheil Saakashvili that refugees will not be booted from their state-provided housing, Akhali Taoba writes, the process of eviction continues.
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) living in Tbilisi’s Mukhiani district protested the evictions in front of the city council building on February 27.
“In the election campaign, Saakashvili promised us he would make the [temporary housing] legally ours, but it looks like we were lied to again,” a protestor said
Others were inclined to give the president the benefit of the doubt.
“I’m sure Mikheil Saakashvili does not know about [these evictions], and if he had known he would have taken appropriate measures,” another IDP said.
The protest went for several hours until a city council official came to promise action on the issue.
“President Mikheil Saakashvili attends groundbreaking ceremony of church in Adjara”
Sakartvelos Respublika reports on the February 27 groundbreaking ceremony for the St. Andrew I church in the western border town of Sarpi.
At the ceremony President Mikheil Saakashvili promised locals the church would be finished within a year.
“I personally will oversee the building of this church, and we will take care of the financial issues. Very soon Georgia will have another beautiful Orthodox church,” Saakashvili said.
“Two-story building burns down in Telavi”
A two-story building in the Kakheti capital of Telavi burned down on February 27, Rezonansi reports.
Three families were left homeless, but no one was killed.
It is thought that old power lines caused the fire. Telavi municipality head Levan Akhalauri told journalists the city would find homes for the families.