Ergneti – After a Year

No one pays attention to the burned village

Tea Tedliashvili, Gori

The government of Georgia is proud that it has given shelter to all IDPs but apparently it does not really care where and in what conditions the IDPs are actually living…

Ergneti was the most notorious village in the Gori district. There was a market in the village before 2004 where Ossetians and Georgians worked together. The market was shut down by Irakli Okruashvili, the former Minister of Defense… The people started leaving village slowly after the market was shut down and the August war destroyed the village completely…

Only 7 families live in the upper district of the village Ergneti now. This district was completely burned down in August, last year. Unlike other villages all houses of Georgians were burned down in this village.

Ergneti is situated at the border between Georgia and separatist region of South Ossetia and was completely controlled by Georgians before the August war. In 2008 the border was pulled down with 500 meters and a part of the village where Georgian lived was placed under the South Ossetian border. Georgians cannot go to that part of the village even to see their burned houses let alone return there. The 7 families that live in the upper district of the village Ergneti are desperate. Being left alone at the Ossetian border they are visited once in two months to supply with 9 kilos of flour, one liter oil, 600 grams of sugar, 1, 50 kilos of beans and 150 grams of salt. The 7 families are due to receive this type of humanitarian aid till December of this year from of World Food Program. No one knows what happens then.

The large family of Zaza Doijashvili continues to live in the village up to now. They family considers that they should not leave their home even though they have to tackle numerous problems there.

“Koba Subeliani, the Minister of Refugees and Accommodation arrived some time ago here. He came to the village and stayed in the lower district at the village entrance where the big house stands. The lower district was not burned during the war, only the upper one which we call Doinjaant Ubani (Doinjaant District). I think the upper district was burned because it is very close to the border. Subeliani asked how we were. We went to him and asked to come up to the upper district. We wanted to show how we lived. He refused. He said, I am not crazy, I cannot come, and I do not have guards with me. What about the people who live here, are we crazy? If we are, someone should come and tell us that we are crazy and we have to leave this place. This negligence is unacceptable. The border was drawn down with 500 meters. We cannot desert this place in these circumstances,” says Maguli Okropiridze, the wife of Zaza Doijashvili.

Doijashvili’s fifth child –Ketevan was born on August 7, 2008. The family could not enjoy the happiness brought by the birth of the baby because she was born when the war started. The mother had to take her from the hospital and flee to save their lives. The mother with the infant went to Tbilisi on foot. Fortunately, a stranger picked her on the road and brought her to Tbilisi.

“I was so stressed that I could not even realize that I should be happy because my baby was born. I jumped out of the maternity home and excaped with the baby when the military base was being bombed on August 8. I did not even have the clothes for the baby. I went to the kindergarten in Digmis Masivi, Tbilisi. We started living there. There was one doctor living nearby. He used to come and examine me and my baby,” says Maguli Okropiridze.

The family that has five children sustains itself with the food given by the WFP and 28 GEL of social assistance which they receive as the IDPs from the first war in South Ossetia.

“We have the income of only 28 GEL.  We used to have two houses in Tskhinvali. We left Tskhinvali during the first war. Then we bought a house in this village. It was burned during the war in August, last year. The Danish Refugee Council built a cottage for us. They built bigger cottage since we are many in the family but it is very poorly constructed. The walls are already dissolving. It is not surprising; the cottage was constructed in December. My husband and I have four daughters and a son. We do not receive any social assistance for our children. We are in very difficult conditions. They brought the food for children only once and but when we asked for the second time they refused. I cannot feed a one-year-old child with beans and pasta,” said Maguli Okropiridze

The inhabitants of upper district of village Ergneti do not have access to water. Electricity is often cut off.

“The water used to be supplied from Tskhinvali to our village, both drinking and irrigation. We have neither now. We have not left the village for three months now. We came back in February. No one is interested in our fate. We could not take harvest last year because of the war. We could not sow anything this year. Consequently, we do not have any harvest. It is impossible to sow since we do not have water,” says Naili Kakhniashvili, Zaza Doijashvili’s neighbor.

“The Ossetians cut off the irrigation water whenever they want. We used to have this problem before but this year they do supply water very rarely. They give water when they want to clean their sewage channels. Consequently, we get only dirty water.  You cannot possibly be happy to have such water,” said Zaza Doijashvili to us.

“Now we have water because they clean their sewage system. There are often shootings. They do not aim at someone but they shoot when they are drunk,” said Zaza Doijashvili.

“There was big explosion several days ago. I got very scared. Our husbands were not at home. We, women stayed awake the whole night. We thought the war started again,” says Naili Kakhniashvili.

“My rights are violated – I have five children but no one pays attention to us. Big families need support. Everything is destroyed. They took away everything from our house. There was only an old piano left probably because it is very heavy and could not lift it. We ask that someone pays attention to us. We are only 7 families here, not more,” complained Maguli Okropiridze.

These 7 families live in one- room cottages which were constructed by the Danish Refugee Council.  The consequences of war can be best seen in this district of the village. Only the cottages and the Ergneti St. Mary Church do not have any trances of war. Father Davit used to serve in this church. Now the church is empty. Father Davit serves in Sioni Cathedral in Tbilisi. The 7 families in the Ergneti village hope that he will return and the service will be held in the church again.