Defense Ministry Confirms Incident in Military Unit but Claims that Soldiers Beat Each Other
November 11, 2010
Salome Achba
The ministry of defense confirmed an incident in the 42nd battalion of the fourth brigade of the Armed Forces on November 4. However, the ministry denies the information about a physical assault of soldiers by commanders. The public defender who personally visited the unit provided a similar response to the allegations.
The information about the physical assault of soldiers on November 5 was circulated by the representative of the non-governmental organization Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights” Nana Kakabadze. The soldiers had sent messages to her from the military unit.
According to the official comment of the defense ministry, the incident occurred between two corporals, and was caused by a dispute over a lost weapon.
Nevertheless, Nana Kakabadze stated that soldiers informed her about the physical assault of Corporal Chocheli from Gori, Sergeant Kiknadze and several other soldiers. Corporal Chocheli, who returned to the military unit from a recent vacation, found his weapon lost. He was rebuked for it, as well physically assaulted. . According to the initial reports, 15 soldiers were beaten.
The soldiers stated in the messages that, during the incident the soldiers were compelled to stay outside the building from 7:00 pm till 5:00 am and to do some physical exercises. In addition, other officers were kicking them in the abdomen and their hands and legs were frozen.
Because of the lost weapon, the soldiers of the fourth brigade state in private conversations that the entire company of the unit was moved to the emergency regime.
Human Rights Center’s Executive Director Ucha Nanuashvili informed both Prince Eduard and the Ambassador of Great Britain to Georgia about the incident during their visit.
Ucha Nanuashvili, executive director of the Human Rights Center: “I raised the question about the incident during my meeting with Prince Eduard as well as with the diplomatic corps accredited in Georgia. This incident attracted the interest of the meeting participants and they asked us to update them with the information. The representatives of the diplomatic corps cannot interfere in the incident personally; however, they petitioned to the public defender to respond to the incident immediately.”
Public Defender Giorgi Tughushi personally visited the military unit and conversed with the parents of the soldiers. He confirmed that the soldiers had injuries on their body. Tughushi reported that the soldiers – Chocheli, Kiknadze, Nadiradze and Datunashvili have injuries on their bodies. Kiknadze has bandaged his leg and states that he himself injured it. The public defender and representatives of their monitoring group met other soldiers too. Tughushi said the soldiers allege they had quarreled with each other and had received injuries as a result. As for Kiknadze, he stabbed himself. According to the public defender, there is no emergency regime in the military unit.
The human rights defenders have already evaluated the incident and consider it to be very alarming. They do not believe the soldiers’ stories that suggest the injuries they sustained were on account of a quarrel. They believe the soldiers did not quarrel and were indeed beaten as they said in the original messages sent to Nana Kakabadze.
“I can tell you that similar incidents often occur and this is not the first occasion. I think civil society should closely monitor these incidents in the future in order to prevent the government from committing similar violations,” said military expert and the head of the non-governmental organization Law and Freedom Irakli Sesiashvili in his interview with Humanrights.ge.
Nana Kakabadze stated that the incident indicates the government’s desire to oppress and subordinate society. “There is complete disorder; there are no control mechanisms in prison or the army. The governmental policy is to have oppressed and subordinated citizens. The government does not need the army for the security and defense of the country but for their personal security only. How can a discredited person defend your country?”
The military police is investigating the incident of November 4 in the 42nd battalion.
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