GEORGIA

Human Rights Developments

Political chaos, economic crisis, and armed conflicts in its territory gravely threatened Georgia's very existence as a state during 1993, with severe repercussions for its human rights situation. Georgia lost territory in its war against the secessionist republic of Abkhazia and lost important ground against armed bands supporting former President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, who was ousted in 1992. These crises paralyzed the parliament, courts and law enforcement agencies responsible for preventing and punishing human rights abuses.

Facing an extraordinarily high crime rate in a society where most civilians have guns, Georgian law enforcement agencies, infamous for beatings, torture and other cruel treatment of detainees, showed no sign of improvement in 1993. They also continued to allow semi-official paramilitary groups to take on the role of maintaining public order. In 1993 Helsinki Watch received several appalling reports of cruel beatings in pre-trial detention. One concerned a man who was arrested for large-scale theft in a shoe factory and was beaten by police for several days in order to extract a confession, and then released. In another case, a supporter of former President Gamsakhurdia, who was awaiting trial on terrorism charges, was severely beaten by a convicted murderer who had mysteriously obtained the keys to the man's cell.

Tbilisi's chief of police estimated that mobs-sometimes numbering in the thousands-lynched about ten criminals in 1992 and 1993. Local journalists put the estimate higher (about one lynching per month) and added that the lynchings often took place in the presence of law enforcement officials, while suspects were being transferred from the scene of a crime or from one different prison to another. In August, a mob in Tbilisi attacked and killed two men who had killed a small girl that day in the course of an armed robbery. The lynching took place after police had arrived on the scene.

In a meeting with Helsinki Watch, the Tbilisi chief of police flatly denied that police brutalitywas a problem (although in an interview several months later with a Canadian journalist he was quoted as admitted it). The Georgian Procuracy-the nation's highest prosecutorial office-told Helsinki Watch it took disciplinary action against the convict in the above-mentioned case, but maintained that the beating took place for "personal" reasons. The procuracy in 1993 concluded that Zaza Tsiklauri, a man who reportedly was tortured and beaten in 1992, received his wounds during an attempt to escape from a police car.

Supporters of former President Gamsakhurdia continued to be subjected to various forms of harassment, which intensified as pro-Gamsakhurdia forces sought to take over parts of western Georgia. Police and paramilitary groups broke up several demonstrations, reportedly beating demonstrators in the process. At least five Gamsakhurdia supporters were fired from their university jobs, apparently for political reasons. Police broke up a meeting of Gamsakhurdia supporters in a private apartment on June 2, and brought all thirty-two participants to the police station; they were later released. The family members of Gamsakhurdia supporters also were rounded up by Mkhedrioni, one of the two main Georgian paramilitary groups, and there were allegations that Gamsakhurdia supporters who were imprisoned were beaten and possibly tortured.

The main pro-Gamsakhurdia weekly newspaper, Iberia Spektr, was unable to publish one of its issues in late April for reasons which, the editor believed, are connected with the controversial content of the previous issue. The paper was closed altogether in October. Its editor, Irakli Gotsiridze, was the target of several attacks in 1993, including one in February, when forty bullets were fired into his apartment. In October Mr. Gotsiridze was arrested for sedition and, according to his wife, was brutally beaten in detention, resulting in several broken ribs. Another pro-Gamsakhurdia newspaper, The Georgia Sentinel, was under pressure from government officials for its articles on the conduct of Georgian forces in Abkhazia and articles claiming that Gamsakhurdia had returned to power.

Pro-Gamsakhurdia newspapers were not the only ones to suffer harassment in 1993. In July the National Democratic Party (NDP) pressed a lawsuit against the independent weekly Rezonans for an article that included inaccurate information on a closed Council of Ministers meeting. The case was dropped. On September 17 another independent newspaper, Shvidi Dre, was attacked by eight armed men who said they were from the NDP. The men beat up staffers and fired pistols into the office's computers.

Thousands of civilians have been killed and wounded in the struggle for control of Abkhazia, an autonomous republic on the Black Sea, and over 100,000 driven from their homes since the outbreak of hostilities on August 14, 1992. All communities in this ethnically heterogeneous area suffered varying degrees of damage from shell and air attacks during 1992 and were heavily looted. The warring parties responsible were, on the Georgian side, disorganized forces from the Georgian National Guard, and paramilitary groups such as Mkhedrioni (Horsemen); and on the Abkhazian side, loosely coordinated volunteers from local villages and from the Confederation of Peoples of the North Caucasus, mercenaries from Russia, and probably some Russian Army personnel.

The Right to Monitor

Helsinki Watch received no reports of restrictions or attempted restrictions on the work of human rights monitors during in 1993.

U.S. Policy

The U.S. government provided unwavering support for Head of State Eduard Shevardnadze both in the war with Abkhazia and in his struggle against supporters of former President Gamsakhurdia. Part of this unwavering support was the absence, in Washington, of public criticism of Georgia's dismal human rights record. This was particularly disappointing given theconscientious efforts of the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi to gather information on human rights abuses, although the embassy's monitoring was far more assiduous in the capital than in the western conflict zone. Following Abkhazia's September offensive, President Clinton reportedly sent a message urging President Shevardnadze to resume peace negotiations with the Abkhazians.

U.S. aid to Georgia included Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) privileges and Most Favored Nation status (not yet ratified by the Georgian parliament as of November). A delay in granting coverage or a suspension of OPIC coverage for American investors on human rights grounds would have sent a strong signal to the Georgian government, but there was no evidence that the Clinton administration had invoked such leverage; nor, indeed, did it publicly criticize the poor human rights atmosphere in Georgia.

The murder of a U.S. Embassy official, Fred Woodruff, near Tblisi in August should have drawn administration attention to the extraordinarily high level of violence in Georgian society and to the ways in which law enforcement officials and paramilitary groups which the government tolerates contribute to this violence.

Of the $224 million allotted to Georgia in U.S. foreign assistance, $200 million was humanitarian assistance; monies were also allocated for C.I.A. training of President Shevardnadze's bodyguards. Helsinki Watch considered that, if police brutality and government tolerance of paramilitary groups acting as law enforcement authorities continued, this assistance should be cut.

The Work of Helsinki Watch

Helsinki Watch sent a mission to meet with Georgian government officials in June. The mission focused on police abuse, and was followed by a detailed letter to Head of State Shevardnadze in August calling attention to brutality on the part of police and paramilitary bands.

Helsinki Watch and the Human Rights Watch Arms Project also sent a joint mission to Georgia in July and August to investigate violations of the laws of war in connection with the secessionist conflict in Abkhazia. The mission helped identify Russia as a possible source of the weapons being used. Helsinki Watch and the Arms Project planned a report documenting violations by both sides, with recommendations to the Georgian government, Abkhazian authorities and the government of the Russian Federation on how to prevent such violations in the future.