Nana Kakhniashvili: unemployment remains main problem of refugees from conflict zone of South Ossetia

Four years after the beginning of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, refugees from South Ossetia, who at present live in the Georgian village of Tserovani, complain about unemployment, lack of benefits and normal living conditions.

The village of Tserovani, located not far from Tbilisi, is one of the largest refugee dwelling settlements; there, after the war in August 2008, 2100 cottages were built during less 3.5 months for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) from South Ossetia. Residents of Akhalgori, Liakhvi Gorge, Tskhinvali and Tamarasheni live in the village of Tserovani. Four years ago, they were forced to leave their home places.

On August 9, 2008, Nana Kakhniashvili left Liakhvi Gorge, her native village. At present, she works as a journalist for a monthly newspaper entitled "Liakhvi Gorge", highlighting the life of refugees. According to the woman, at present, unemployment remains the main problem for the IDPs.

Earlier, Otar Khegashvili lived with his family in Tamarasheni. "On August 8, when the bombing started, I took my son, who served in Special Forces, since he had no chief any longer, generally, there was no one, even the police had left the place prior to out leaving, and we went to Tbilisi," the man says.

At present, Otar Khegashvili is unemployed, and his family lives on social assistance. Otar Khegashvili also has a small processed land plot; however, according to the man, he had problems with the land plot, since Tserovani is not supplied with water for irrigation.

Other villagers also speak of the problem with water. "Yes, not to starve to death, we ourselves grow beans, tomatoes, corn; however, the village is not supplied with irrigation water. And it is prohibited to pour drinking water on plants, and fines are to be imposed for that. However, we take risk, since we cannot remain without food," says a 46-year-old Nino Saakashvili, who lives in a two-room house with her mother, her husband and six children.

Earlier, Vasil Tavtarov, a resident of the village of Tserovani, worked in forestry administration, and at present, he is unemployed, and he explains that fact by his critics of the authorities.

"To find a good job, one should be a member of the ruling party and praise the authorities. And I have different mood. We are deprived of all privileges, my family spent a half of the winter without electricity, since I had no money to pay," Vasil Tavtarov has noted.

According to the Georgian government, as of the end of March 2012, there were 265,295 IDPs in the country. Meanwhile, it is noted that the number of internal refugees includes 242,592 persons, displaced during the earlier conflicts, 18,789 persons, displaced during the conflict of August 2008, and 3914 persons, displaced twice.