Kakheti Regional Administrative Board Made a ‘Black List’ of Non-Governmental Organizations

Gia Natsvlishvili, having been appointed to the position of the Kakheti region governor for two months, finally drew his attention to the NGOs too. The governor met the representatives of the third sector several days ago. NGOs, who were not in the “Black List” during previous governor, were represented on the meeting.

According to the official information, administrative department was responsible to spread information about the meeting and invite NGOs there. Though, Mari Shavshiashvili, the press secretary of the governor, said that the officials from the regional board ordered the district administrations to invite NGOs to the meeting.

In Gurjaani, Valeri Vardosanidze, the Deputy Governor of the Gurjaani district and former official from the governor’s office, was ordered to do the job. “I was informed by the regional administration that the governor was going to hold a meeting with NGOs. I was ordered to inform the NGOs in my district. Unfortunately, I omitted some of them quite by chance. I paid travel expenses for those whom I informed about the meeting” said Vardosanidze.
 
He did not say anything about the list which was sent to the Gurjaani Administrative Board by fax from the regional administration. The letter gave the exact information about the NGOs which were to be invited. The association ‘Vezhini’, ‘Just Elections’, ‘New Generation’ and some more NGOs were on the list. 

The Human Rights Center protects human rights, and is considered to be the most active organization in the whole Kakheti region. Local journalists appreciate the activities implemented by the center. The NGO has serious information about many problems and violations in the region. A representative of this organization must have been invited to the aforementioned meeting, unless the meeting had some symbolic purpose,” said journalist Zviad Ruadze.

‘It was not strange that they did not invite any active NGOs in the region to the meeting except the Telavi office of the Young Lawyers Association. Representatives of the regional and district administrative boards doubted that representatives of the NGOs will speak about many violations in the region in order to inform the governor about the corruption of his colleagues,” said Tamar Makharashvili, correspondent for the regional newspaper Imedi.

Sighnaghi based Lawyers’ Development Center was not invited to the meeting either. However, the association ‘Kai Kma’ was invited to the meeting. Mamuka Korashvili is the head of this association and he is also a chairman of the election commission and a close person to the local government.

Lawyer Tinatin Phkhovelishvili considers that the participants of the meeting were selected according to their relationships with the local authority. “The local authority invited the NGOs, whom they liked and those who will not complain about their activities,” said Phkhovelishvili.

“We think that the Human Rights Center was to be invited to the meeting. Our center demanded to meet with the governor several times. Situation has worsened in the region since Natsvlishvili was appointed to his position. There are a lot of problems here what makes the life more unbearable in the region. Somebody had to speak about it,” said Lia Khuroshvili, a lawyer of Human Rights Center’s regional office.

Natsvlishvili does not comment on the situation. However, Shavshiashvili blamed the district governors for the mistake.

Non-governmental organizations demand to meet the governor; however, they do not hope he will meet them.

 Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti