The government chose a politically “dead season” to fight the open market sellers and IDPs.

The heat of August reached its peak in Tbilisi. Nobody wants to come out in the 40-50 degrees, but the police is using the “dead season” to attack the open market sellers and IDPs. The open market sellers and IDPs are holding protest rallies, but few people support them in the heat of the summer, except for Lasha Chkhartishvili from the “Conservative Party” and Aleko Shalamberidze from “People’s Party,” the names that appear whenever the talk about the eviction of the open market sellers occurs.

The open market sellers were thrown up from the “Dinamo” stadium territory in the morning of August 10th. According to Lasha Chkhartishvili, hundreds of open market sellers were raided and their goods were destroyed. According to his information, the open market sellers at the “Delisi” metro station were also raided. The police officers broke their items and took them away at 3:00 a.m.
The open market sellers from the “Delisi” metro station have recently received a warning to leave the territory. According to Chkhartishvili information, the warnings were made to other open market sellers at Rustaveli Avenue and others streets as well.

According to Lasha Chkhartishvili, the government will not offer them an alternative trade places, and the prices are too high in the closed market places.

Tbilisi City Hall is calm about the prohibition of the open market trade. According to the City Hall’s information, there are places in the closed market for the open market sellers. Specifically, the transfer of four thousand open market sellers is planned to the closed markets. As Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugulava stated to the journalists, the transferred open market sellers will not be charged the taxes till the end of the year.

The open market sellers held the protest rally at the Tbilisi City Hall at the same day, August 10th. The rally was held on August 11th as well. As the open market seller from “Dinamo” stadium area, Marina Shvittsova informed “Interpressnews,” they were not paying any taxes for open market trade. They were selling minor items and made a little income. Now they are offered the places at “Tergi” market (Vagzal territory), which is unacceptable for them.
“In order to start working in the closed market, you need at least 5000 lari. We don’t have so much money to bring goods there. We just sell 100 lari goods during the week, minor items. For selling one pair of socks, I get just 50 tetri, imagine how many I need to sell to be able to pay the closed market taxes?! 8 lari a day, 30 lari a month, electricity fee…” – said the open market seller.

According to one of the sellers, Tsiala Kvernadze, she was working at the “Tergi” open market. She had two places, but the taxes were too high, no profit was gained, so she joined the open market business.

According to the open market sellers, they don not pay taxes in the open market business. Exempting them from taxes till the New Year is not acceptable for them, since they have to start paying taxes after the New Year.

The protest rally was supported by Lasha Chkhartishvili from the “Conservative Party” and Aleko Shalamberidze from the “People’s Party”. They planned the protest rally for August 12th not at the City Hall, but at the President’s Residence in Avlabar.

On August 12th, the united protest rally of the open market sellers and IDPs was held at the President’s residence. The open market sellers asked the President to show interest in the issue of the prohibition of the open market trade.

As one of the open market sellers, Nanuli Mamasparashvili stated to “Interpressnews,” they tried to join the closed market 2 years ago, when the open market trade was prohibited. They joined the “Mukhiani Star,” brought 1000 lari goods with them, but no profit was gained. They had to pay very high taxes and gained no profit. So, they were obliged to leave the market and go back to the metro station “Akhmeteli.” According to their statement, they are ready to pay a reasonable amount of taxes. They can’t pay high taxes. And the daily taxes in the market are very high for them to pay.

As Mamasparashvili states, the government should regulate this issue and consider the interests of the average sellers who can’t pay high taxes.

As for the IDPs gathered at the President’s residence, they were asking for the registration of their residence places. According to one of the IDPs, Nino Zantaraia, the IDPs kicked out from the compact resident places or in danger of being kicked out from there, attended the protest rally at the residence. Zantaraia indicates that the IDPs are urging the President to show interest in the problem of IDPs, and to help with the provision and legalization of the residence places in the capital city.

The police attacked the IDP compact residence places parallel with the prohibition of the open market trade. The eviction process of IDPs from Transcaucasia Former Military Department situated at the Vake-Saburtalo road started on August 11, 07:00 a.m. At this time, the IDPs items were being loaded in the trucks and the building was being emptied. And the IDPs were stating that they have nowhere to go and some of them are not offered anything. Some were offered residence places in the villages Oruli and Potskho of Zugdidi region. But the IDPs refused this offer and asked for residence places in Tbilisi. During the whole night, the representatives of “People’s Party” Aleko Shalamberidze and “Conservative Party” Lasha Chkhartishvili were supporting the IDPs. 700 families live in this building, basically from Abkhazia and Kodori valley, a little less from Tskhinvali region.

An IDP from the village Achabeti who doesn’t want to be identified, said that he was offered to submit a complaint to the Ministry of Internally Displaces Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees. The Ministry commission will discuss the issue on August 13th and provide 10000 dollars for Monday. According to him, he has a right on 10000 dollars; but he had never received them.

According to the IDP, he could buy a little house in some village in Gori with this money. According to him, in the former building of Transcaucasia military department, there were three IDP families from the Tskhinvali region, some from Kodori valley and others from Abkhazia.

The Ministry of IDPs, Accommodation and Refugees confirms that they give 10000 dollars to every IDP family who suffered as a result of the 2008 war. The IDPs who never received this money should submit a complaint.

Though, it seems that 10000 dollars will not solve the problem because there are many instances when the IDPs use this money for other problems and stay without shelter. Another problem is that this money will not satisfy the IDPs who want to live in Tbilisi.

According to the IDPs from Tskhinvali region, they could not buy apartments in Tbilisi with 10000 dollar compensation. As the IDP from the village of Achabeti of Didi Liakhvi, Salome Qaliashvili said that she received the compensation of 10000 dollars, but it was not enough to buy an apartment building in Tbilisi.

That is why she lived in the former military department. As Qaliashvili said, most of the IDPs could not buy the apartments for 10000 dollars. Some people were able to add their own money and buy an apartment; some bought cheap apartments in different villages of Shida Kartli.

According to Shida Kartli IDPs, not everyone received the 10000 dollars compensation. Qeti Zoziashvili, an IDP from the village Qemerti of Didi Liakhvi valley said that her family never received 10000 dollars compensation, the reason was the problems with the documentation.

Some IDPs are asking for the legalization of the residence places put under the balance of Tbilisi City Hall. The IDPs from the #8 Machabeli and Qetevan Tsamebuli Streets are asking for this.

According to the resident of Machabeli Street, Nunu Khubua, the building where they lived is under the balance of the City Hall. They were warned to leave the building; otherwise, they would be forced to leave. These IDPs attended the protest rallies held at the Tbilisi City and President’s residence.

According to the “Interpressnews”, the protest rally held in front of the president’s residence was organized by the “Conservative Party” representative Lasha Chkhartishvili and Aleko Shalamberidze from the “People’s Party.” The rally was also supported by the head of the coalition “For Our Rights,” David Liluashvili.

As Lasha Chkhartishvili stated, Thursday was announced to be the day of IDP solidarity. So, every Thursday, at 12:00 P.M, the protest rally for IDP solidarity will be held in front of the President’s residence.