MP Hunger Strike Shows Government Neglect to its Social Obligations

The Disadvantaged Use Courts to Defend Their Interest

The hunger strike of the five opposition MPs forced Presi!
dent Eduard Shevardnadze to vow to cover a pension backlog with state securities. However hunger strikers as well as many pensioners are doubtful whether this promise will alleviate their poverty.

Five MPs from the National Movement opposition party went on a hunger strike in the waiting room of the Justice Minister on July 16, demanding from the government to repay the pension arrears.

“The government should care about pensioners, who have not received their pensions for years. They are starving and asking for their pensions in vain,” Koba Davitashvili, one of the five MPs on strike, told Civil Georgia.

“We are ready to sacrifice our health to satisfy demands of the pensioners. Therefore we have not set a concrete term of our hunger strike,” says another hunger striker MP Gocha Jojua.
 
It all started with a lawsuit several months ago, when under initiative of the National Movement, the local pensioners of Samtred!
ia, town in western Georgia sued the government for unpaid pe!
nsions for years 1998-2000. MP Koba Davitashvili was defending the pensioners’ interests in the court. On April 21 the court ruled in favor of the claimant and ordered the United Social Security Fund and the Finance Ministry to repay 148 thousand Lari (approximately USD 70,000) to the pensioners.

This case triggered similar suits in another western Georgian city of Kutaisi, were up to 2 thousand pensioners appealed against the government. Decision of the Kutaisi District Court was the same: the Fund and the Ministry were ordered to pay 215 thousand Lari (approximately USD 100,000).

“We are standing by the pensioners, who were not scared by government’s intimidation and appealed the court. They took risks and won [the case]. However, this did not bring any real results,” Koba Davitashvili said.

He added that a hunger strike was organized in the J!
ustice Ministry’s building, since this ministry is responsible for enforcing the courts’ decisions. According to the Law on Executive Proceedings, the Social Security Fund had to fulfill the court’s decision within three months. The deadline has expired on July 21.

Under the decisions of the Samtredia and Kutaisi district courts, the government has to pay 364 000 Lari in total (approximately USD 170 000). Experts say that the government is able to repay this debt, despite severe budgetary deficit. However, the strikers claim that the government does not want such dangerous precedent to take place.

“The government’s position is the following: if they satisfy demands of this particular group of pensioners, than others will come up with same claims and this is not what government wants now. The Deputy State Minister [Akaki Zoidze] expressed this position openly via [Rustavi 2] TV and this is very embarrassing,” Koba Davitashvili!
said.

There are approximately 800,000 pensioners in G!
eorgia. The government’s total debt to them reaches 16 million Lari (approximately USD 7.5 million). Each pensioner can appeal to a court and win the case, but the government claims it will not be able to repay these debts completely.

The authorities claim the National Movement’s protest is a part of their pre-election campaign not a result of care about the pensioners. President outlined this very fact while commenting the hunger strike and called the politicians to refrain from “hysterical pre-election populism”.

Koba Davitashvili also admitted that the strike is connected with the elections. “Politician’s job is politics. Some politicians think that election campaigns start three months before the elections. But we started our campaign four years ago. We see it as our duty to protect the people’s interests and to fulfill what we have promised,” he said.

Observers say that recently politicians and citizen!
s started to use the court as a powerful mean to pressure the government. For example, the Labor Party won a case against increase of the electricity tariff, causing troubles to the government in relations with IMF. Increase of the tariff was among IMF’s strongest demands.

The National Movement’s hunger strike enjoyed great support from the pensioners’ side. They have organized a protest action at the Justice Ministry’s building on July 21, demanding resignation of the government along with repayment of their pensions.

Other citizens are also suing the government for the damages. Among them are families of the sailors, who died in a ship accident in 1998 at Poti Prot. The Poti Court ruled that the government should pay these families compensation, but the decision was not implemented.

“We demand money to feed our orphans. Otherwise we will refuse the Georgian citizenship and find shelter in some other country, as the Georgia!
n citizenship provides no protection to us,” Darejan Sk!
hireli, a sailor’s widow, told Civil Georgia.

“Our hunger strike does not concern only these two particular cases [of Kutaisi and Samtredia pensioners]. We are protesting against the government’s neglect towards its obligations and decisions of the courts. Such things should not be happening in a democratic country. The people must know that they have the right to express their protest in a peaceful form,” said MP Gocha Jojua.

Initially President Shevardnadze downplayed the hunger striker MPs’ demands saying “strikers probably want to lose some weight. Otherwise there is no other real reason for their strike”. However lasting hunger strike made the President react on the issue at last.

“The government already agreed several mechanisms of repaying the pension debts with IMF. We will do everything to ensure that the cutting of the budgetary expenditures will not affect primary social obligations, such as pensi!
ons and salaries. At the same time we are drafting a decree regarding repayment of old pension debts, mainly those of 1998-99,” said President Shevardnadze in July 21 radio interview.

According to the IMF recommendations the government has to fully repay the pension debts before 2008. The government intends to pay the pensioners with securities and bonds.

As Roman Gotsiridze, head of the Parliament’s Budgetary Office says the Parliament should discuss and approve the draft law on securities. “So far there is no clear mechanism of what would be interest rates of these securities and what privileges the pensioners will receive with these papers,” Roman Gotsiridze told Civil Georgia.

He explained that the pensioners would be able to either sell the securities directly or receive monthly interest payment.  If the Parliament approves the law on securities, the pensioners will have no ground to appeal to the courts to demand!
repayment of the pension debts any more.

“Befor!
e that the government has to pay this small number of pensioners, who already appealed to the courts. This is a very small amount of money, which the government could afford easily,” Roman Gotsiridze said.

The pensioners are very skeptical about the government’s plan, believing that the securities will be introduced with the only purpose to appease them and they will not have any real value. They also protest regarding the rescheduling the payment of the pensions backlog.

“I don’t trust them (authorities). How can I trust their securities? I am 69 years old. The government understands that sooner or later I will not be here and waits for this day to come. I want my pension now. I can’t demand my money from the government when I’m dead,” Mariam Kachkachishvili, a Tbilisite pensioner told Civil Georgia.

By Tea Gularidze, Giorgi Sepashvili Civil Georgia

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