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IHF Report 2001 GEORGIA1 135 IHF FOCUS: Elections; peaceful assembly; political prisoners; judicial system; torture and ill-treatment; religious intolerance; international humanitarian law. Despite a formal commitment to re- Social insecurity led to widespread spect European human rights standards as restlessness in Georgia. The Government a Council of Europe member State (since frequently lagged months behind in the April 1999), Georgia continued to violate payment of wages and pensions, and, ac- basic civil and political rights. In 1999 the cording to multilateral lending institutions, Council of Europe recommended that failed to collect taxes. In April, the Georgia review the cases of persons con- International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that victed or detained for their role in the polit- problems of governance and corruption ical upheavals in 1991-92, i.e. members undermined fiscal stability in Georgia, and, and supporters of the administration of in May, found that poverty in Georgia had Former President Gamsakhurdia. However, increased significantly throughout 1998 following the amnesties in 2000, some 30 and the first half 1999. political prisoners remained in prison, and Of the 5.5 million Georgian population, the Parliamentary Human Rights Commit- around 1.5 million left the country in recent tee said in August that their cases were not years for political and, in particular, eco- eligible for amnesty. Vasil Maglaperidze, nomic reasons. The remaining population chair of the Parliamentary Commission for was largely apathetic. There was a great National Reconciliation and known for his gap and mistrust between the population dedication to human rights, replied that and the ruling elite and widespread corrup- should the remaining cases be refused re- tion infiltrated all governmental structures. view, there would be no point in continuing The year 2000 was marked by massive the “reconciliation process.” demonstrations for social rights. The events The OSCE/ODIHR concluded that fun- were mainly spontaneous and not organ- damental freedoms were generally respect- ised by any political party. The electricity ed during the election campaign of the supply collapsed in the fall, leading to a April presidential elections, but noted that constant electricity shortage. In November, further progress is necessary in order for angry people began to demand the light Georgia to fully meet OSCE standards of and heating for which they had paid the fair and free elections. State, and spontaneously blocked the main Problems regarding the Criminal Proce- streets in the capital Tbilisi and highways in dure Code remained unsolved, as numer- different districts of Georgia. Barricades ous provisions that were in line with Euro- were built up and tyres burned in the pean standards were repealed after Geor- streets, with people demanding their un- gia was admitted to the Council of Europe. paid pensions and the resignation of the Torture and ill-treatment remained a President. The situation was almost out of central human rights problem and despite control. Through the intimidation of activists Georgian authorities’ admission that such on the one hand, and groundless promises methods were used, no significant steps on the other, the Government managed to were taken to end the practices. Religious intolerance grew and some postpone the problem for a while. observers claimed that by drawing the pop- 3 ulation’s attention away from social prob- Presidential Elections lems, the Government tolerated, and pos- The presidential elections were held in sibly encouraged, attacks on the so-called Georgia on 9 April. Eleven candidates ap- non-traditional religious groups and individ- plied for registration to the Central Election uals seeking to promote tolerance.2 Commission (CEC). Seven party-nominat- 136 GEORGIA ed and independent candidates were regis- Election Committee applied the legal provi- tered through a procedure that was not ful- sions selectively. ly transparent. Only two candidates, incum- Despite new legal provisions stipulat- bent President Eduard Shevardnadze and ing the inclusion of additional representa- Jumber Patiashvili, campaigned actively. tives of the parliamentary minority in elec- Eduard Shevardnadze won a second tion commissions at all levels, the parlia- five-year term as President with more than mentary majority retained to a large extent 80 percent of the vote. Voter turnout was its dominant position in the election ad- about 70 percent.4 ministration. The OSCE/ODIHR Election Observati- According to the OSCE/ODIHR, the au- on Mission for the presidential elections thorities provided strong support for the in- concluded that fundamental freedoms cumbent President’s election campaign to were generally respected during the elec- the extent that there was no clear dividing tion campaign and candidates were able to line between state affairs and the incum- express their views. However, the bent’s campaign. Apart from allocating free OSCE/ODHIR noted that further progress is airtime to registered candidates, the state necessary for Georgia to fully meet OSCE media gave the incumbent a clear advan- standards of fair and free elections. In par- tage. ticular, they referred to problems in the fol- The ISHR-Georgia reported violent inci- lowing areas: interference by state authori- dents during the pre-election campaign ties in the election process; deficient elec- and other irregularities. For example, tion legislation; a not fully representative Patiashvili’s election meetings were pelted election administration; and unreliable vot- with stones and local authorities hindered er registers. Other important concerns rela- him from meeting with individuals.5 ted to a number of ambiguous and some- On election day, voting was conducted times contradictory procedural provisions in a generally calm atmosphere. However, of the election legislation. OSCE/ODIHR observers reported a series A substantial number of amendments of identical signatures on the voter lists, had been made to the legislation in order group voting and the presence of unautho- to address some concerns raised previous- rised persons, including police and local of- ly by international observers. However, the ficials, in polling stations. OSCE/ODIHR stated that other concerns The election process deteriorated dur- were only remedied partially or not ad- ing the counting procedures, which lacked dressed at all. Furthermore, some amend- uniformity and, at times, transparency. ments enhanced the powers of the chair- Tabulation procedures lacked transparency persons of election commissions at all lev- and instances of protocol tampering were els, thus raising new concerns. The fact that reported. In general, procedural safeguards several amendments were adopted less to support the integrity of the process were than three weeks prior to the elections cre- not implemented, in part due to a lack of ated confusion among the election admin- adequate administrative instructions and istration and some political parties, in par- training. ticular those entitled to appoint new mem- bers to the election commissions. In fact, Political Prisoners the implementation of the amended provi- Since 1992, real or presumed support- sions was delayed beyond legal deadlines, ers of the Government of former President thus frequently preventing the new mem- Zviad Gamsakhurdia have been harassed bers from fully participating in the adminis- and sentenced to long prison terms. Others tration of the election process. In addition, were detained routinely for periods ranging on a number of occasions, the Central from a couple of days to two weeks, con- GEORGIA 137 victed on charges of terrorism and high prisoners who were members or support- treason, mostly in unfair trials, following the ers of the Gamsakhurdia Government, in- ousting of the former President in 1991. As cluding Gudgabidze, Bichashvili, Dgala- of the end of 2000, some 30 such persons gonia and Djichonaia. Dozens of other po- remained in prison. litical prisoners, who were sentenced un- The Council of Europe Parliamentary der Articles 104 and 105 of the Criminal Assembly recommended in 1999 that the Code (murder), were not covered by the Georgian Government “review the cases decree.10 of persons convicted or detained for their In a June letter to Zurab Jvania, Chair- part in the upheavals of 1991-92 within man of the Parliament, the IHF criticised 6 two years after its accession.” the fact that not all political prisoners’ cas- In early 2000, within the framework of es had been reviewed,11 including the ap- “national reconciliation,” the Parliament re- proximately 30 remaining cases of the 44 viewed a number of cases of political pris- prisoners pardoned by President Shevar- oners who had been involved in the 1991- dnadze on 2 August (out of the 147 92 upheavals.7 names submitted to him for considera- In March, a hunger strike was declared tion). Elene Tevdoradze, Chairwoman of by political prisoners Bidzina Gudgabidze, the Parliamentary Human Rights Commit- David Bichashvili, Murtaz Dgalagonia and tee, said that all Gamsakhurdia supporters Karlo Djichonaia, demanding a general and eligible for amnesty had already been re- unconditional amnesty for political prison- 12 ers. As the Government paid no attention leased. In reaction to that statement, at first, numerous political prisoners in oth- Chairman of the Parliamentary Commis- er penitentiaries, labour camps and deten- sion for National Reconciliation Vasil Mag- tion facilities joined the hunger
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