Mouths Wide Shut

Today, the Georgian NGO Coalition for Justice released a press statement calling for greater consideration for the rights of the displaced by the international community, reminding us that 400,000 IDPs were forced from their homes and communities by Russia since 1993. The press release, however, failed to mention that IDP rights are also threatened in Tbilisi.

Read original article at Tbilisi Blues

Seven Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), have gone on a hunger strike in front of the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees, to protest their eviction from the Isani shelter two weeks ago. Four of them are so committed that they sewed their mouths shut. The eviction was ordered by Ministry of Economic Development, which is headed by the former head of the Coalition for Justice and Abkhazian IDP, Vera Kobalia.

The Coalition for Justice has issued a press release intended for the international community when in fact it is the international community that funds all major IDP programs in Georgia and the Strasbourg court that ends up protecting the legal rights of IDPs like Batalbi Saghinadze from Georgian iniquity. The Coalition for Justice could press the government to ensure the rights of IDPs are protected, like the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), Georgian Public Defender, Georgian Young Lawyer’s Association, Transparency International, and others, but instead the NGO takes the government’s line by stating the international community hasn’t done enough to punish Russia for causing people to sew their mouths shut in Georgia.

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