VERSIONS: روسيا اليوم NOTICIAS FREEVIDEO ИНОТВ RTД
breakingnews
Go to main page   News   Displaced refugees from Georgian war still unable to return  
MORE ON THE STORY
An American instructor trains Georgian soldiers at Vasiani base outside Tbilisi three weeks prior to Georgia’s invasion of S. Ossetia   AFP/East news 10.08.2009, 08:54 6 comments

S. Ossetian war taught the US a lesson

The war in South Ossetia resulted in a reconsideration of US policy towards the post-soviet space.

11.06.2009, 14:06 24 comments

Child saved from Jehovah’s Witness parents

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has demanded that a four-year-old-girl be saved from almost certain death. The girl’s parents, who are Jehovah's Witnesses, were preventing hospital doctors from treating her.

RIA Novosti / Mikhail Fomichev 20.09.2010, 12:13 3 comments

South Ossetia marks 20 years of independence

The Republic of South Ossetia celebrated 20 years since it declared independence. In the last two decades it has faced several military conflicts amid attempts by Georgia to bring it back under Tbilisi’s control.

25.02.2009, 18:52

Observers in S. Ossetia not effective – Russia

Moscow has criticized the international observers monitoring the ceasefire lines in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Foreign Ministry says the observers’ work is not effective enough.

12.01.2010, 15:14 2 comments

Gays taking center stage in Georgia

The first-ever performance centering on homosexual relationships has been staged in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, despite negative reaction from the authorities.

Photo from medianews.ge 22.07.2009, 18:30 1 comment

Saakashvili maneuvers to stay afloat

There is little mystery in Saakashvili’s request to the US to join the EU Monitory mission around the seceded regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, now recognized by Russia as independent and sovereign states.

RIA Novosti / Konstantin Basov 26.08.2010, 17:51 1 comment

South Ossetia celebrates 2 years of independence

South Ossetia marked its independence day on Thursday, gratefully acknowledging Russia’s role in the attainment of political sovereignty.

30.06.2010, 09:21 1 comment

Azeri minority report from Georgia

The members of Azerbaijani community in Georgia are raising their voices to have their rights recognized as they believe they are being treated as second-class citizens while being one of Georgia's largest ethnic groups.

16.01.2009, 12:55

Abkhazia in search of international recognition

Russia recognised South Ossetia and Abkhazia, following Georgia's military attack on South Ossetia last year, but people of the new states are still hopeful of greater acknowledgment from the international community.

08.07.2009, 03:39

“USA and Russia can find compromise on South Ossetia”

“Asking Russians to change their decision on South Ossetia is impossible; it is not realistic,” says Giulietto Chiesa, a former member of the Europarliament. This “requires changes in the behavior from the US President.”

Displaced refugees from Georgian war still unable to return

Published: 06 August, 2009, 09:49

A refugee from the separatist republic of Abkhazia (AFP Photo / Louisa Gouliamaki)

(9.6Mb) embed video

TAGS: Breakaway regions, Georgia, Human rights


Georgian nationals who fled Abkhazia after the 1993 war are still being told by their government they will be able to return to their homes. However, Abkhazia has said no return is possible.

When Guram Kvaratskhelia fled Abkhazia for Tbilisi, his government promised him that he’d be back home within a year. That was 15 years ago.

And now Georgia’s government is again making promises it cannot keep because, instead of life getting better, jobs and housing are more difficult to come by.

If it wasn’t for the photographs of their former lives, Guram and his family would think it was all a dream.

“This is Saakashvili’s war. He takes us refugees for granted. He calls us the refugees of Shevarnadze and therefore thinks he doesn’t need to help us,” Kvaratskhelia says.

Since last year’s war with Russia, 15,000 more Abkhazians fled to Tbilisi as refugees. Kvaratskhelia can’t shake the feeling that they are all being used as pawns by a president desperate to stay in power.

Now the one thing that has kept these refugees going is finally failing them – their hope.

“It would have been better if I’d left the country. But the government kept promising and promising that things would get better. This is beyond our worst dreams. It’s really hard to explain the feeling when you finally realize you’re never going back home,” Kvaratskhelia said.

A dilapidated hospital with leaking pipes and cracked walls is now home for Kvaratskhelia and three other families.

Mzia Saiani’s pension supports her disabled husband and unemployed son. She hates herself for having voted for Saakashvili and believing his promises to help her.

“We’ve been thrown into the ocean and nobody taught us how to swim. Our life is not a life. Saakashvili is looking for another war with Russia. It’s not enough that last year’s war was a disaster for Georgia. He’s looking for an outside threat to unite the people of Georgia. But if there is another war it will be the end of Georgia,” Saiani says.

Saiani’s view is one that is getting more and more popular in Georgia. The chorus of anti-Saakashvili demonstrators is growing stronger and new organizations have sprung up to intensify the fight against him.

“After the Rose Revolution and after Saakashvili came to power, all the resources went into trying to portray Russia as an aggressor, a barbarian country. Now the established opinion among the public is that this was Georgian aggression and that it is Georgia that began hostilities in South Ossetia,” said Tariel Gagnidze from Historical Heritage.

Instead of using the state budget on Georgian refugees, Saakashvili diverted a large part of it to military spending and building himself a mansion, which is only a few minutes drive from the dilapidated hospital. Saakasvilli began building it shortly after he came to power in the Rose Revolution and finished it last month. When once he might have been a president without a palace, today more and more Georgians want the palace – without the president.

Zviad Mirgatia was suspicious of Saakashvili from the start. He worked in the Georgian parliament for 12 years until two weeks ago when he quit out of frustration and disappointment.

He says last year’s war wasn’t a mistake Saakashvili made – it was a crime.

“Of course it’s not the end, there is going to be a follow-up, and not a very pleasant one,” Mirgatia says.

+2 (6 votes)
 
Back to top
next MORE NEWS
Tskhinvali, Ossetian girls roller-skating and near a burnt-out building in Tskhinvali (AFP Photo / Kazbek Basayev) 06.08.2009, 08:47

Painful memories of S. Ossetian War

It is almost one year since Georgia launched its assault on the Republic of South Ossetia. In the days that followed scores of Ossetians died and homes were reduced to rubble, and the scars of war still remain.

06.08.2009, 14:44 23 comments

Israeli strike on Iran just a matter of time?

Despite all diplomatic efforts the US has undertaken to dissuade Israel from striking Iranian nuclear facilities, the attack now seems virtually inevitable.