IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service, No. 91: excerpts

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Subject: IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service, No. 91: excerpts

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IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service, No. 91: excerpts


WELCOME TO IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, No. 91, July 24, 2001
 
ADJARIA SECESSION FEARS The Georgian leadership dismisses fears that
the autonomous republic of Adjaria may be planning to secede. By Jaba
Devdariani in Washington DC
 
AZERI TV CLOSURE BLOW The surprise closure of the popular ABA TV
station is a serious blow to the independent media sector in
Azerbaijan. By Shahin Rzaev in Baku
 
TBILISI STRUGGLES TO HOUSE DISPLACED GEORGIANS Georgians uprooted by
the Abkhaz conflict are finding imaginative ways of overcoming the
state's failure to provide them with decent accommodation. By Zaza
Baazov in Tbilisi
 
********** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: www.iwpr.net **************
 
ADJARIA SECESSION FEARS
 
The Georgian leadership dismisses fears that the autonomous republic
of Adjaria may be planning to secede.
 
By Jaba Devdariani in Washington DC
 
President Eduard Shevardnadze of Georgia has responded coolly to the
announcement that the autonomous Republic of Adjaria has adopted
crucial constitutional changes and called parliamentary and local
elections in the autumn, without consulting the central government.
 
The July 7 constitutional changes form the latest in a long series of
challenges to the national government from Adjaria's leader, Aslan
Abashidze. As a result of the reforms, Adjaria will now have a
bicameral legislature, with an upper chamber of ten senators and a
lower chamber of 35 deputies. The latter will be elected by
proportional representation and is therefore likely to be dominated by
Abashidze's Union for Georgian Revival.
 
Aslan Abashidze first rose to prominence during the coup against
Georgia's president Zviad Gamsakhurdia in 1992. Acting as an
intermediary between pro Gamsakhurdia forces and the military, he kept
Adjaria out of the conflict and created a permanent power base in the
republic's capital, Batumi.
 
Abashidze's Union for Georgian Revival now also forms the core of the
largest opposition faction within the Georgian parliament. Abashidze
jealously guards Adjaria's autonomy and challenges Tbilisi's authority
at every opportunity. On occasion, his refusal to hand over lucrative
port and cross border taxes collected in Adjaria has brought Georgia
to the brink of bankruptcy.
 
In May, Adjaria even advanced a counter-claim of 135 million Georgian
laris ($60.5 million) allegedly owed to Adjaria for pensions and
organizations funded from the federal budget.
 
Some in Tbilisi have predicted that the constitutional changes mark a
first move towards secession. "This is another step to political
independence," said Vakhtang Khmaladze of the Industry Will Save
Georgia movement. Others, such head of the Citizens' Union of Georgia,
CUG, parliamentary faction Revaz Adamia habitually detect the
influence of Moscow in the autonomous republics. Russia "will go to
extreme measures to retain the strategic balance in the
Transcaucasus," he told Georgian television. (see CRS No. 90, Russian
"Imperialism" Threatens)
 
However, the government and main opposition responses have been
significantly cooler. Interviewed on national radio on July 9,
President Shevardnadze commented only that any changes must respect
the Georgian constitution. "This is not a move towards secession, but
an adjustment within the legal framework offered by the constitution,"
said Jumber Patiashvili, leader of the main parliamentary opposition.
 
Indeed, ambiguities within the Georgian constitution lay at the heart
of Adjaria's continued sparring with Tbilisi. Adopted in 1995, the
constitution proclaims the desirability of a federal system and
guarantees autonomous status for both Abkhazia and Adjaria, but offers
no legal definition of their autonomy. It is also notably vague over
where the boundaries between regional and central government powers
lie, an issue which originally delayed the adoption of the
constitution in 1995 until the situation in Abkhazia became clearer,
but has remained unresolved ever since.
 
Abashidze is therefore free to exploit these ambiguities to fashion
Adjaria's constitutional relationship with Tbilisi on an ad hoc basis.
Politicians in Tbilisi point out that only after the Georgian
constitution is clarified, will Abashidze's hand be stayed. "Six years
have passed since the adoption of the constitution and perhaps the
most important aspects of state-building remain undefined," said Akaki
Asatiani, leader of the Traditionalist Party. "Hence situations like
the one today are likely to recur."
 
However, those who view the constitutional changes as a movement
towards secession are overlooking Abashidze's other role as a key
figure within the national opposition, which is currently locked in a
bitter struggle against the ruling CUG. In an address on republican
television on June 19, Abashidze likened the central leadership - and
specifically parliament speaker Zurab Zhvania - to fascists.
 
Part of the opposition strategy has been to target the law on local
elections, thereby highlighting the government's difficulties in this
area. Adjaria's decision to stage elections in the autumn has forced
the government to call nationwide local elections at the same time to
prevent a fragmentation of the whole local election process.
 
Thus, Abashidze has killed two political birds with one stone: while
promoting Adjaria's autonomous interests, he has also scored a triumph
for the national opposition. For the time being, at least, the ongoing
stand-off between Tbilisi and Batumi looks set the remain a recurring
theme in Georgian politics.
 
Jaba Devdariani is a regular IWPR contributor, a founding director of
the  United Nations Association of Georgia, and research director of
UNAPAR (UN Association Program of Applied Research)
 
...................

TBILISI STRUGGLES TO HOUSE DISPLACED GEORGIANS
 
Georgians uprooted by the Abkhaz conflict are finding imaginative ways
of overcoming the state's failure to provide them with decent
accommodation.
 
By Zaza Baazov in Tbilisi
 
The 15-storey Iveria in downtown Tbilisi was a grand affair when it
was first built in Soviet times. But like other hotels in the city, it
now gives an overwhelming impression of dilapidation. Its balconies
sprout improvised canvas or plywood walls. Laundry hangs out to dry
the whole length of the building.
 
Originally intended for tourists, these hotels were turned into
long-term refuges for tens of thousands of mainly Georgian families
who fled Abkhazia after the autonomous province's declaration of
independence in the early Nineties sparked a civil war.
 
Over a quarter of a million of these internally-displaced people,
IDPs, have entered Georgia proper since then - ninety thousand of them
are now in Tbilisi. From the start, there was little evidence of a
consistent policy towards the problem. At first, the government
offered temporary accommodation but no-one expected that the Abkhaz
Georgians would still be there this far down the line.
 
While the state has managed to house around half of the total, the
rest are staying with relatives, squatting in disused buildings. The
remainder found shelter in the countryside where the housing shortage
was less acute. Disused local government buildings and housing
abandoned by those migrating to the city were handed over for the use
of IDPs.
 
In the cities, it proved impossible to solve the IDPs' accommodation
problems in the same way. "We've lost all hope that things will get
better," said 54-year-old Nunu Gabelia from Abkhazia, who is squatting
in the Hotel Ajaria with her family. "That's why we've tried to turn
our hotel rooms into something resembling a normal home."
 
Back in 1997, President Eduard Shevardnadze asked Badri
Shoshitashvili, the then Tbilisi's mayor, to draw up an inventory of
empty buildings in the capital and to make them available to the
displaced people.
 
When Shoshitashvili replied that there were almost no buildings
suitable for the purpose, the IDPs took matters into their own hands,
and have since taken over some 47 disused buildings in the capital.
 
The shortage of alternative accommodation has meant that the
authorities sometimes rule in favour of the IDPs when attempts are
made to evict them. As happened when a factory director appealed to
remove a group who had installed themselves in the administration
block of a long disused factory. The eviction was halted and the
director relinquished his claim.
 
Cheered by the success of this do-it-yourself spirit, IDPs began to
repair the building's damaged woodwork and connect up electricity and
water supplies. Now, many owners of disused buildings turn a blind eye
to the squatters, happy in the knowledge that their property is being
maintained for free while ownership remains in their hands.
 
The shortage of housing is still the IDPs' most severe problem,
according to Nino Todua at the ministry for refugees and
accommodation. The state was able to provide them with some homes in
1997, but no new housing has been built for IDPs in the past four
years.
 
"Most of humanitarian organisations that helped IDPs in Georgia have
cut back their programmes since 1997," said Todua. "No NGO is dealing
with a problem of housing IDPs and, as a result, there is no long-term
policy."

There is quite clearly an extraordinary low level of coordination
between the authorities responsible for IDPs and foreign NGOs, because
the overseas organisations are indeed providing assistance.
 
A government official responsible for Abkhazia, Merab Efadze, told
IWPR that the UN had provided grants for three accommodation projects.
The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Norwegian Refugee
Council are also helping to renovate buildings where IDPs are housed.
 
But the uprooted Georgians are becoming impatient. Despite the risks
they face, many have returned to their deserted homes in the Gali
district on the Georgian-Abkhazian border. Members of the peacekeeping
forces deployed by the Commonwealth of Independent States patrol this
12-km-long strip of territory, but it is regularly targeted by armed
Abkhaz groups.
 
"I know that I could be killed anytime there," said Giorgi Gagua, who
recently returned to Gali with his family. "But I'd rather die in the
yard of my house, than go back to begging on the streets of Tbilisi. I
don't believe anymore that the state wants to help us."
 
"Going back home is the only solution," added Arkadi Benia, a former
official from Gagra in Abkhazia, who is still living in Tbilisi. "Even
if only the burned ruins of our homes remain, it's preferable to free
housing and the refugee allowance."
 
Zaza Baazov is an independent journalist based in Tbilisi
 
********** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: www.iwpr.net **************
 
IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service provides the regional and
international community with unique insiders' perspective on the
Caucasus. Using our network of local journalists, the service
publishes objective news and analysis from across the region on a
weekly basis.
 
The service forms part of IWPR's Caucasus Project which supports local
media development while encouraging better local and international
understanding of the region.
 
IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service is supported by the Regional Media
Fund of the Open Society Institute. The service is currently available
on the Web in English and in Russian. All IWPR's reporting services
including Balkan Crisis Reports, Reporting Central Asia and Tribunal
Update are available free of charge via e-mail subscription or direct
from the Web.
 
To subscribe to any of the news services, e-mail IWPR at
[email protected].
 
For further details on this project and other information services and
media programmes, visit IWPR's Website: <www.iwpr.net>.
 
Editor-in-chief: Anthony Borden. Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan;
Assistant Editor: Philip O'Neil; Commissioning Editor: Marina Rennau
in Tbilisi; Associate Editors: Ara Tadevosian in Yerevan, Shahin
Rzayev in Baku and Zarina Kanukova in Nalchik. Editorial assistance:
Mirna Jancic and Heather Milner. To comment on this service, contact
IWPR's Programme Director: Alan Davis [email protected]
 
The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) is a London-based
independent non-profit organisation supporting regional media and
democratic change.
 
Lancaster House, 33 Islington High Street, London N1 9LH, United
Kingdom.Tel: (44 207) 713 7130; Fax: (44 207) 713 7140. E-mail:
[email protected]; Web: www.iwpr.net
 
The opinions expressed in IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service are those
of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the
publication or of IWPR.
 
Copyright (c) IWPR 2001

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