“Last of the Mohicans” in Hotel “Kutaisi”

Special Reportage

As a rule, people must not live in the building that is under deconstruction. But there are some laundries hanging on verandas of the hotel. According to trousers, shirts and some other clothes hanging on the rope we can easily guess that inhabitants are not young people.

Wooden fence surrounds the Hotel “Kutaisi”. It shows that pre-reconstruction works has already started in the building. There are white foot-prints on wide steps. You can easily tell old prints from new ones.

-Where are you going? There is almost nobody upstairs-a young man, holding a hammer or something like that, took an initiative and asked me.

I can hear voices of people coming from “upstairs”. However, it is difficult to make out who they are-workers or inhabitants. There is a long dark corridor at the end of the stairs. The light coming from only one open door can illuminate the corridor poorly. The door has number # 210. Old couple and their neighbors are discussing well-known topic of eviction from the hotel.
 
-Thank to God that somebody still remembers about us! We will be very grateful if you do not remind us that we must leave the place!” this is Mr. Shota, one of the last inhabitants of the hotel.

Nearly 84 families lived there until the last event. Then they left the building gradually and only nine of them remained on the place; they have nowhere to go. Their relatives have their own problems and cannot invite them to their families. The investor offers only 4 500 USD to them. IDPs can buy only a cellar with that money in Kutaisi(!)

-Are we demanding anything special? We want only one room and peaceful life in our old years. However, the peaceful life has become impossible luxury for us. Leaving the building people look at me in the street and whisper “He is that IDP”. They might mean “that stubborn man who was impossible to evict from the hotel”. Do you know what I think? IDP status is our brand name. They think they can insult us.

Smell of coffee and medicine is mixed in the room. There are nearly ten kinds of drugs on the bedside-table. Wife of Mr. Shota has cancer. However it does not prevent investors to visit old couple often and threaten them with eviction.

Shota Milorava is 76. IDPs residing in the hotel elected him as a chairman of the IDP Committee. The man, being kicked out from his own land, remained in the hotel Kutaisi till the end like a captain in the sinking ship. Once he was lodged in the room # 210 accidentally and now he lives there with his sweet memories.

-Our son was colonel. In that horrible 1993 we learned that our son, Nugzar Milorava, was wounded and taken to Tbilisi. We could not manage to take anything valuable from our house in Sokhumi. We left the place like mad to see our son alive. We walked round the whole Tbilisi on foot but could not find our son. Then they told us he was in Kutaisi hospital. We arrived in Kutaisi but although we found there certain Milorava, he was not our son. We could not find Nugzar and remained in this city, in this hotel.

Since that time they have been living like guests there. Their few clothes are hanging on the chair. Window sill is used as cupboard to place plates and cups on it. There is a calendar of 1993 on the wall which stops the time in the room # 210.

-We lived happily. We had enough money and honesty to live on. But who are we now?-nobody. In Georgia only jungle laws are working now. Only strong people win in the struggle for life. Several days ago representatives of the UN arrived in Kutaisi. They passed by the hotel and could not help their surprise seeing the wrapped up building where people were still living. They seem don’t know that in Georgia everything can happen.

The investor cannot evict them under the law. They can demand the IDPs to leave the hotel only when they satisfy the inhabitants with either flat or compensation. It was mentioned in initial agreement signed between IDPs and building owner. However, the rights of IDPs were violated and forced them to hire a lawyer. At the Kutaisi Civil Court the case was settled in IDPs’ favor but later on the lawyer left them without help. Mr. Shota said that the lawyer was either bribed or threatened by investors.

The old couple and their several neighbors hope that the investor would not kick them out in the street like dogs. It is kind exception when the investor is Georgian and as they say he is a very charitable person.

-If he were Russian or Czech we would be more concerned. I believe that Mr. Badri Kakabadze will manage something. They say he is arriving in several days…

I am leaving the room # 210 with heavy heart. I cannot wait to get home and I open the book by Nugzar Milorava (Shota MIlorava’s grandson) who is in the seventh form. The name of the book is “Hymn to Kindness”.

“What is kindness? Kindness is life. If a person cannot be kind, his/her life has no sense. Kindness is long, evil is short. Kindness is stronger than evil. Generous person is very happy. I wish the gift and skills granted by the God never ended on the earth,” (Nugzar Milorava, 2004).

Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi