In Georgia, South-Ossetian refugees demand increase of compensations for eviction

Refugees from South Ossetia, who had been evicted in August from the Hotel "Abkhazia" in the city of Tbilisi, where they stayed for more than twenty years, demand to review the issue of their cash compensations.

Let us remind you that in August refugees from the city of Tskhinvali, who stayed at the Hotel "Abkhazia" in Georgia since the early 90s of last century, were forced to evict from the hotel, since it was purchased by a private owner.

Lasha Chkhartishvili, the representative of the Conservative Party, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that, in accordance with the agreement on the privatization of the Hotel "Abkhazia", a copy of which he had at his hands, "the company 'Veladjio', which had purchased the building for the symbolic amount of 1 lari, agreed to pay the refugees, who stayed at the hotel, the compensation amounting to 3,985,000 US dollars."

"The Ministry for Refugees claims that they have nothing common with that money," he emphasizes. "Actually, it's a lie, since 173 families received the compensation amounting to 10,000 US dollars. Another seven families agreed to move to Rustavi. Thus, the sum of payments to those people, who had agreed to compensation, amounted to 1,730,000 US dollars, and the housing for the remaining seven families was not worth 2 million laris. Therefore, the question arises: what happened to remaining two million?"

Last week, on November 11, Lasha Chkhartishvili organized a refugees' protest action, some of them gathered in front of the Hotel "Abkhazia". The rally participants demanded to increase the amount of their compensation.

"Each refugee received 10,000 laris; however, this amount is not enough to buy even a one-bedroom apartment in any of the Tbilisi districts," Lasha Chkhartishvili told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to the refugees, who stayed at the hotel, some families received no cash compensation and nor housing, since several related families in the lists were combined into one family.