Georgian authorities admit mistakes made in Pankisi

The lack of authorities' attention to problems in the Pankisi Gorge has led to a violent dispersal of the action of opponents of the construction of hydropower plants (HPPs), the head of the country's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has stated. Authorities are afraid of the aggravation of the situation, analysts believe.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 21, several hundred residents of the Pankisi Gorge held an action in the village of Birkiani of the Akhmeta District aiming to prevent the start of construction of the "Khadori-3" HPP. In clashes, 38 policemen and 17 protesters were injured. On April 22, rally participants threatened the authorities to scale up protests should activists be arrested. On April 30, the People's Assembly of the Pankisi Gorge called on the Georgian authorities to jointly overcome problems.

Giorgi Gakhariya, the head of the Georgian MIA, said that the MIA has a plan to overcome the crisis, but failed to disclose the details. The authorities made a mistake by failing to thoroughly study the situation in Pankisi, Minister Gakhariya has admitted.

The government began behaving cautiously, experts have noted. "The authorities fear to aggravate the situation – they understand that they had made a mistake," said Shota Utiashvili, a representative of the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies.

"The government does not want to disclose its action plan in order not to aggravate the situation," said Vakhtang Maisaya, Doctor of Military-Political Sciences.