Return to Gori

Yesterday, I was revisiting Gori, somehow this town “speaks” more to me than Tbilisi… the visit and in particular some encounters with its people was (again) very instructive…

What surprised me most at the outset when talking to people through my interpreter was the apprehension, almost fear of a new war with Russia that came through in some people’s remarks… Many people I spoke to expect some resumption of hostilities around the first anniversary of the beginning of the war this coming Friday…

So far it has been fairly quiet, apart from the - one has to say almost “usual” - posturing between Georgia and Russia and some minor skirmishes in South Ossetia…

Thinking about it, I should not have been surprised about these comments and fears… most of these people have been living with the results and the reality of war ever since it took place last year – displacement, no-go zones around Gori due to the inadequate security situation, even their apartments still show the scars of war…

Despite efforts by the government and especially some aid agencies to give some of the displaced people at least temporary housing, most of the families I had the opportunity to speak to, feel left alone, not given enough help by the government, and if given help, not enough or only inadequate relieve… One woman from Tskhinvali showed me stacks of macaroni and sacks full of beans in their crude and improvised dwelling – but nothing else, not even oil, onions, some vegetables or fruit – so what to cook if you have just macaroni and beans?




The government and some aid agencies (notably one from Germany) continue to build prefab houses for the families who still live in former kindergardens, former ministries or other makeshift buildings… most of the families expect to get one of the new houses by September… But one gets a barrage of words when inquiring about this outlook: they don’t want new houses, they want to go back to their native regions and villages… and many feel and realise with resignation that this will be next to impossible… some speak these words quietly, but with an equal sense of desperation…

A few of the families will not be given new houses, as they don’t qualify for this kind of resettlement. One family I spoke to came from the village of Mereti, a few kilometres from Tskhinvali (which is now firmly under South Ossetian/Russian control). De jure (which law?), Mereti is “proper” Georgian territory, so displaced families should be able to return to the village. However, de facto Mereti is controlled by marauding South Ossetian gangs which operate beyond the control of the Georgian police and which would make it hazardous for these families to return. For obvious political reasons, the Georgian government wants these families to return to their villages: it cannot accept a de-popularisation of these regions of ethnic Georgians. But would you want to return to this kind of environment and risk the life and health of your children?





Those displaced people and families that already have been given new houses – for example in a new settlement with umpteen exactly similar houses on the road from Tbilisi to Gori, now dubbed “New Gori” – are equally unhappy with the situation. They once more call for help from the government. Most of them had a farm, a few houses on it, vegetable and fruit gardens, arable land, chickens and cattle… now they have literally a few square meters of land with limited fertility around their makeshift dwellings. Are these people ungrateful for all the efforts of the government? Are they demanding the impossible? Are they caught up in the old socialist notions of that the state has to provide for you? Where is their own sense of can-do and initiative for self help?



Or is this kind of behaviour and these kind of demands understandable from people who have lost their roots, their sense of belonging, their hopes of ever going back, of ever having the same kind of stability and abundance in their lives?

Despite the (international) help that these Georgians receive, many feel abandoned by the international community, feel that they don’t receive enough assistance from the US and the EU in their struggle to reassert themselves towards Russia. If you ask what kind of help they expect beyond the substantial material and (maybe more limited) moral support, you draw a blank. Weapons? No, they don’t want weapons or a new war… But beyond that there are no answers…

Georgia remains in limbo…