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Owners Evicted from Shop Urge President for Help

December 29, 2006

cignebi.gifOwners of Saunje, a shop at 28 Rustaveli Avenue, were forced to leave. Although they held a demonstration, they were forced out by police as ordered by the Ministry of Economics. 

The controversy between the ministry and the shop owners started approximately two months ago. The controversy began when the financial police raided Sony Centre and Café Rustaveli, which are situated near the Saunje and sealed these commercial entities. Ostensibly, the Sony had some practices that were not cleared by customs, and this resulted in the government shuttering the store. As for the café, the owners had avoided payment of taxes.  However, in reality, the reason for the closing of these entities was an interest in the property.

Soon after the incidents, both café and the Sony centre were reopened.  However, the centre was obligated to relocate. The Ministry of Development offered the owners of Sony the Saunje as a relocation choice.  [The Saunje is owned by the government.] However, this prompted protests from vendors at Saunje.

The Saunje has been selling stationery items and books for several decades. Shota Beridze, director of the Saunje said, “Officials from the Economics Ministry broke into our shop as if they were robbers. They cut the water supply. The shop is already sold. Mzia Kakabadze, private person and former owner of the Sony Centre and Café Rustaveli, purchased our place. She has transferred her territory to the state in exchange.”
 
The vendors at the shop demanded a month to relocate, and they also demanded new places to conduct their business. They have petitioned the President.  The letter stated, “Mr. President, we kindly beg you to give an alternate location for the Saunje.”

Giorgi Arveladze, Development Minister declared, “The Saunje belongs to the state, and the government would use it for development purposes.  The vendors, who worked in the place for many years, could not register the property in their names. Thus, the place never belonged to them. The government was interested in encouraging business, and it preferred not to have to use eminent domain proceedings to seize private property.”

Employees of the Saunje blame the minister for spreading false information. “The Ministry has made false statements about our illicit trading.  We worked in the shop legally, and we can produce the necessary documents. However, the problem is that nobody is interested in our evidence,” said Meri Chkhetia.

The employees have another problem. They have to pay the firm which supplies them with books. Thus, if they cannot sell the books, they will be in arrears to the firm.

They have taken stationery items home. Beridze said that the total amount of inventory they had for sale in the shop amounted to 350,000 GEL. Employee of the shop, Beka Gharibashvili, said that “3000 distributors had sold books to the shop. Officials from the ministry did not let us to carry out an inventory of the goods. If anything is lost, those distributors will refuse to do business with us.”

A dispute between the Sony Center and the Ministry still continues.  The Center has a legal right to remain on its current property until 2015. Soso Baratashvili, lawyer for the Center, said that there is a contract between Sony and the Ministry of Justice, [in whose building the Center is located], which states that the center can stay in the area until 2015.

Ilia Gotsiridze, the head of the Ministry of Development’s Political Affairs division, said that he has not seen the documents. However, the owners of the Sony center said they do not plan to move into the Saunje.

Eka Gulua 


  

 

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