IDPs living in Bakurtsikhe complain about inattention from the authority

Lela Khechoshvili, Kakheti 

IDPs from Abkhazia living in Bakurtsikhe village, Gurjaani municipality do not intend to participate in the 2016 Parliamentary Elections. They say every government forgot about them. Today they live in extreme poverty and unbearable conditions. 35 IDP families live in two former buildings of Bakurtsikhe College. 

 

The IDPs moved to Bakurtsikhe in 2010 after they were forcibly evicted from the resort house Akhtala. Before 2010, over 40 IDP families lived in the buildings of the Akhtala Resort and a few families lived in the Vejini asylum for elderly people. Because of unbearable conditions in Bakurtsikhe, some families left the shelter and rented flats. 

In 2010, the Ministry of IDPs, Accommodation and Refugees offered the IDPs to move into the residential buildings in Bakurtsikhe but most of them refused because of worse conditions in them. Finally, police forcibly evicted them from Akhtala. As they say, when moving in Bakurtsikhe, the government officials promised to register agricultural plots located around their new buildings but finally the members of the United National Movement purchased the land and IDPs could not get anything.

“Everybody forgot about us. I do not know how we went through this winter. We were settled here by patrol police officers. We have no jobs, neither agricultural lands to harvest at least beans and potatoes. We sit all day long in our flats and worry about poverty. We have lived in poverty for 24 years. If we had known that we would never return back to our homes [in Abkhazia], we would have stayed there. We walked along the mountain range during 16 days but all for vain. We would rather have stayed in our homes. We left huge properties there and here we are starving. I work here as a daily-worker for a very low salary. In the past we received 3 GEL per day but now we get 15 GEL. However, locals get 25 GEL per day. I cannot work physically. When we lived in Vejini, we managed to earn our living,” the IDPs said. 

IDPs say the current district governor Gia Gergidze gave them many promises before elections but he has not implemented any of his promises so far.

Gurjaani district governor Gia Gergidze said they will assist the IDPs from Abkhazia after the Easter Holiday. “We could not assist them now but after the Easter Holiday we will help them. We have not forgotten about them but initially we gave Easter presents to impoverished families. We will assist the IDPs too,” the district governor said.

“Once before the elections they sent people to pass message that they could not come to our place and asked to come down to get presents. It happened at night, 3 am, before the Election Day. We went down and found parcels of the second-hand cloths thrown out from the cars. They were outworn, old clothes and we threw everything away. They degraded us,” the IDPs said. 

The IDPs from Abkhazia spoke about their problems with humanrights.ge. The employment and poor infrastructure of the residential buildings are the main problem for them. As they said before elections the candidates of the ruling party promised them to give vouchers to cover electricity and natural gas bills but they could not get vouchers so far.

“We are socially vulnerable people but do not have any benefits. We are unemployed and cannot pay communal bills. There are so many functionless buildings in this yard and it would be better if they open some workshops or enterprises there, young people may get employed,” Leila Sanaia said.

IDP from Abkhazia Ekaterine Miminoshvili refused to live in the former building of the Bakurtsikhe College and rented a flat. She lost documents when her flat was robbed after what her IDP status was ceased; consequently Ekaterine Miminoshvili cannot get social allowance. 

“I am very poor; I usually go to daily-work and do difficult jobs; I need operation on the knees. My husband has a cancer and he takes treatment in Tbilisi. We live in poverty but cannot get new IDP documents,” Ekaterine Miminoshvili said.

Representatives of the Ministry of IDPs from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees say it is impossible that a person lost IDP status because of lost documents. As for vouchers on communal bills, the Ministry’s press-center states IDPs shall officially petition to the Ministry and the commission will study their case.

Nina Iarenko lost the IDP allowance because of space in her flat. “My two daughters lived with me but they got married and left us. They ceased my allowance because of the space in our flat. I lived very well in Vejini based asylum. We were close to the district center and transportation was cheap. Since we moved in here, I have had two strokes, pneumonia and bronchial inflammation. I am 69 and have never seen such damp walls before. Even vessel smells mould and damp. Wall-papers are falling from the walls,” Nina Iarenko said.

Poor living conditions, poor infrastructure, unemployment, poverty and health problems – is a small list of problems the IDPs have coped with in Bakurtsikhe village for years. They expect the government to assist them.