Georgia: Property Rights Bulldozed

On the morning of January 31, the scene around the Gotsiridze underground station in the centre of Tbilisi, all dust and debris, resembled the aftermath a battlefield.



The day before, there had been a line of several small food shops here, as well as a two-storey, glassed-in building that housed a cafe and shops. All the premises were demolished by bulldozers during the night.



These are not the only buildings to have been pulled down recently in the Georgian capital in a controversial campaign that the city authorities say is erasing eyesores, but critics say is threatening Georgians’ property rights.



In late January and early February, the inspection service of the Tbilisi municipal authorities ordered the removal of several buildings in different parts of the capital. Lasha Makatsaria, head of the service, said, “The reason for the demolition is the inappropriateness of the exterior of the buildings that made Tbilisi look ugly.”



The authorities also say that the buildings that have been demolished were privatised illegally. The buildings around Gotsiridze station date back to 1999 and the former administration of Eduard Shevardnadze.



The owners of the buildings say they have documents proving that the buildings were purchased or constructed within the law.



Several months ago, Rusudan Jojua, one of the co-owners of the glass shopping centre, mortgaged her flat to take a bank loan, which she intended to use to develop her business.



Now standing on the ruins of her business, she showed journalists a folder of documents on the privatisation of the building.



“I was warned only once, verbally, just two days before the demolition,” she told IWPR, weeping. “I had scarcely had time to think it over, let alone clear the building of the goods, when they came and destroyed everything.”



A trading centre near the Varketili underground station has also been pulled down. Its owner, Grigol Davitadze, says that he was not very worried when municipal officials told him that they would demolish the building.



“I thought they would bring an action in court and do everything legally, because they are the authorities, aren’t they?” he said. “Our documentation is in order and we would have no difficulty proving our case in court. But, one fine morning we arrived to find the building already demolished. Bulldozers had come in the night and destroyed everything.”



The shopkeepers have won support from Georgian people’s defender - or human rights ombudsman - Sozar Subari. In his report on the state of human rights in Georgia for 2006, Subari said cases of private property rights violations had become frequent since 2004, following the Rose Revolution the year before.



“Many buildings were pulled down absolutely illegally, we have studied the documentation,” he said at a meeting with traders whose premises had been pulled down.



“These people should be getting compensation from the state in addition to material damages for the shock they experienced, when they were literally attacked by an armed special group,” said Subari, referring to what happened at the Gotsiridze underground station.



The demolition campaign has extended to towns outside Tbilisi. The governor of the western region of Imereti Akaki Bobokhidze has declared that Georgia’s second city, Kutaisi, “ has dozens of buildings that face demolition, no matter what their form of ownership is”.



The destruction has raised bigger questions about how protected people’s economic rights are in Georgia.



Economics expert Gia Khukhashvili warned that the campaign might have serious repercussions and predicted a public backlash. “This is another wave of redistribution of property in the country with the help of which the authorities are trying to intimidate people and get complete control over private owners. The public has been relatively inert in response to this so far but recently they have become more active, because this process is affecting more and more people,” he said.



“This is a very dangerous process that’s been started by the authorities.”



Mart Laar, the former Estonian prime minister and architect of Estonia’s economic reforms, who has been advisor to the president of Georgia on economic issues since last May, said, breaking his habit of refraining from public comment, that “there are serious problems in Georgia that relate to protection of private property”.



“A lack of private property guarantees may have detrimental implications for investments,” he declared.



The parliamentary opposition has demanded - so far unsuccessfully - that an investigative commission be set up in parliament to trace infringements of property rights and investigate what has happened.



However, Laar called on parliament to take a “clear-cut decision in the form of an emergency legislative act on protection of property”.



Georgian opposition deputies welcomed Laar’s recommendations and a group of them are proposing a new draft bill that would reinforce property rights set out in the constitution and declare a financial amnesty on disputed cases.



President Mikheil Saakashvili and State Minister for Structural and Economic Reforms Kakha Bendukidze have responded favourably to the idea of a new law. “I welcome the idea,” said Bendukidze. “It’s desirable that it was in the form of a law, which will give it more weight and leverage.”



So far though, the mayor of Tbilisi mayor is sticking to his guns.



“The demolition of hideous buildings will continue,” he said. “As for property, everything that was privatized illegally will be confiscated.”



Revaz Sakevarishvili is an economics analyst with Imedi television in Tbilisi.