The Meeting was opened with the introductory speech of Prime Minister of Georgia Vladimer Gurgenidze. He said: we put behind a very tensed and hard week, and must sum up part of its results today. First of all, we must talk how prepared we are for the next few days. Despite the gravest background, the economic stability has been maintained over the week. All felt this directly, seeing that the currency rate remained stable and shops and banks operated without interruption, also seeing that there is no deficit whatsoever in any part of the country except those which are hard to access. The no-deficit trend will be maintained. Nothing has changed in this respect. The difference is that if the market players settled it naturally, without any trouble, preserving the same situation for consumers now requires the same effort from the market players as well as greater effort from the government, the efforts mobilized each day, logistical assistance in many areas, etc. This is the difference. The tensions in the last week and making sure that the situation did not affect consumers strained your efforts and those of your colleagues. I'd like to thank each of you for that but it is too early to relax. We must continue work and stay just as mobilized, as the occupation forces are still in Georgia, and we have heard only declarations of withdrawal, though we are all hope that the withdrawal will commence without delay. You all may know that today they have committed another act of vandalism - I mean the explosion of the railway bridge. I know that the situation there is being studied to determine how long it will take to do repairs I know it won't be easy, but in this case, luckily, the Georgian territory is not too big to prevent us from providing adequate supplies, despite the fact that the bridge was exploded. Besides, with our partners we maintain partnership, friendly and good-neighbourly relations and, naturally, the borders are open, and freight goes out and comes in. By the way, it had gone in every direction before they exploded the bridge. The act of vandalism of today calls for greater efforts from the local government, the central government, all of our colleagues and I am confident that it will be exactly so.
The Prime Minister of Georgia inquired about the situation in Poti Port.
Ekaterine Sharashidze, the Minister of Economic Development of Georgia, expressed appreciations to the employees of Poti and Batumi ports for the commitment that they showed in recent days. Oftentimes, when Poti Port and railway were under bombardment, they were able to act quickly and get things back to normal. She said: the railway workers are still working to repair the bridge. This is a material damage to us but we'll fix it as soon as reasonably practicable. As for Poti Port, it would be hard to say it is operating trouble-free but at this point it is operating in full swing. 13 ships are lying in the port. Most of them are being discharged. Goods are then loaded and carried from the port. Part of the goods includes food products, wheat, cement and other materials. Six ships are ready to enter the port. Concurrently, there are nine ships lying in Batumi Port. These are the ships which were on their way to Georgia or which have entered the ports or are ready to enter. We are working with the carriers, the companies placing such orders to make sure that the ships which planned to enter Georgia are not let down. We are making our best efforts to make sure that the flow of goods is not suspended and that cargo is delivered to the places of destination in western and eastern parts of Georgia. The more positive information that I can provide is that as of today almost all the airlines have restored suspended flights, for example, Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa will carry out a flight today, British Airways and others will renew flights within the next few days. Over this period, approximately 7-8 airlines have not cancelled flights. The list includes Georgian Airlines, National Airlines, Baltic Airlines, Ukrainian Airlines, etc. For that, I'd like to express thanks to them, too. Other companies, too, will resume flights today. So, flights will be fully resumed from Monday or Tuesday.
The Prime Minister of Georgia said: Aleksandre Kvitashvili, the Minister of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia, and Nika Gilauri, the Minister of Finance of Georgia plan another coordination meeting with the humanitarian mission of the US Armed Forces. The guests are getting acquainted with the situation, make assessments and obtain information on where we are in trouble and where we need their help in distribution. As far as I know, efforts are being coordinated to make sure that Georgia now gets the needed assortment of humanitarian cargo.
Aleksandre Kvitashvili, the Minister of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia, informed the audience that a coordination meeting had been held with the US party a few days before. He said: even yesterday we had an informal talk when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on a visit. At both meetings, it was underscored that we can't enter Gori Region, to say nothing about Tskhinvali Region and other occupied territories. We can enter Gori Region neither in ambulances nor in humanitarian aid vehicles. It is a rather serious problem that we can't get the injured out. This has been the case for several days already. We asked the US side for help, as the Red Cross Committee as well as other nongovernmental organizations had made numerous attempts but to no avail. Today, as a result of negotiations with Igoeti, only the ambulance shift has been made, some entered there, others came out of there, as teams take shifts there, and even this is becoming a problem. AS for humanitarian aid, right from the first days, we tried to coordinate things seriously. Those having experience in a similar humanitarian work know that medical equipments and medications come in the first wave of aid. This is a natural reaction. In times of such conflict or other disaster, medications and bandage materials are sent above all else, and now we have plenty of them. That's why they were re-orientated to make sure that articles of daily necessities are sent to refugees. These are: beds, mattresses, linen, articles of hygiene, clothing, and food. This type of cargo started coming in yesterday morning. We receive them in coordination with the Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation. We do not pile them up in warehouses. Rather, we sort out and distribute them. The demand for beds and mattresses is very high. We have the information that the Americans are further increasing the volume of aid, the cargo will be arriving in every two-three hours from tomorrow morning on. Ukraine has sent huge aid for the refugees. So, the situation is getting slowly under control. Most of the refugees are in the city. From today on, medical points will be set up in each center where they are accommodated. We may not be able to cover them all at the beginning but we'll reach them everywhere by opening medical points. So, they will have a doctor, a nurse, medications, and get outpatient care in the centers. As for more serious medical care, all the hospitals have been warned and there won't be any problem in this avenue. There are no delays in providing care to the wounded. Many proposals are coming in from abroad to transfer the wounded for rehabilitation or surgical intervention but so far we have not had a critically ill patient. I'd like to state that due to marauding and banditry in and near Gori region, the number of civilian victims has increased dramatically. Now we have 157 persons undertaking care. The injuries differ. There are those injured as a result of explosion of cassette bombs. They were visited by the US Secretary of State yesterday. There are also those who were maimed at the moment of robbery. We have such people in Tbilisi as well as beyond it, as they were transferred to Borjomi and Khashuri. Our ambulances are working non-stop. The hospital is Gori is operating. We supplied and will continue supplying medications. We want to get drugstores work in this or that way to make sure the situation is back to normal but it seems quite a challenge.
Then the Prime Minister of Georgia stated that the financial system is operating effectively and that all the banks are working without interruptions. Taxes have been collected without interruption throughout the whole week, which is very important, as fulfilling the budget in this way is a precondition for the state to adequately discharge all of its functions. There are no interruptions in the energy sector, either, which is also very important. The Prime Minister inquired whether there was any deficit in any type of foodstuff or whether any help was needed.
Minister of Agriculture of Georgia Bakur Kvezereli informed the audience: despite the increased demand for foodstuffs, primarily for bread, in Tbilisi, we are coping with the situation in every way with the supplies we have. First of all to Gori and also to Kareli and Khashuri Regions, we are sending foodstuffs from Tbilisi to make sure that the refugees and the homeless are provided with food. It is too bed that sometimes this is up to the occupation forces and up to the negotiations with them that comes as a problem to us. In other terms, we do not have a problem. In parallel, we are working with the suppliers as well. They, too, are seeking alternatives, supplying countries or companies, from which they may bring food and substitute, say, for the food coming or to be carried from Russia. In terms of a transport corridor, too, they are making certain diversifications to make sure that different means are available and there is no problem.
The Prime Minister of Georgia expressed hope that in two-three days Poti Port would start operation in full swing ships would enter the port without delay. That would become a reality of the Russians withdrew the occupation forces under the ceasefire agreement that had been signed. Then he asked Nika Gvaramia, the Minister of Justice of Georgia, to provide information on the situation in the penitentiary system.
Minister of Justice Nika Gvaramia said:
The situation in the penitentiary system is stable. There was a breakout attempt in Khoni Prison Facility. More than half of them have already been returned, some of them returned voluntarily. There are complications in the search operations. There are tea plantations near the Prison Facility and we believe that these people are hiding there. This is a confirmed fact, but it is hard to achieve results by a thinning method. As for helicopters, we can't use them for well-known reasons. First we found one of them dead, and just recently - one more corpse. The process is not completed yet. We hope we'll find no more corpses. We made a statement that under the current circumstances the prison facilities are under regular control, that hostilities have been stopped, at least on our part. There is no risk in other territories. Should such risk arise, we'll take all the actions permitted by law and regulations to prevent prisoners from getting back to the society, particularly when the situation is so tense. We announced that if they return, the approach to them will be as lenient as possible, provided they do it voluntarily. Otherwise, we'll take stringent measures against the prisoners who do not return voluntarily. I am sure that at least 99% of them will find themselves behind bars again. Afterwards, the Minister of Justice informed the Government members as follows: the registration of refugees is conducted by the Civil Registry, an agency within the system of the Ministry of Justice. In this case, we are coordinating efforts with the Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation. A large number of agencies have been involved in the process. We are fully mobilized. By now, approximately 15 000 people have been registered. These are the people who come to us on their own, i.e. those in non-dense settlements, whose identification would have been impossible for us, if they had not come to us. In fact, we have completed the registration of these people. Now we are doing the same in densely settled places that we are going to visit. All the sub-departments of the Ministry of Justice, legal entities under public law as well as the Staff of the Ministry have been mobilized. We are assisted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation. I think that we reach high effectiveness during the daytime. Recently, we have developed a new software, thanks to which we can handle 5-6 thousand people in a day, which is quite an impressive figure. We needed specific people for these mobile groups who would enter information to the computer. The software is quite simple, and it is not difficult to fulfill the function. We also needed vehicles to move and the Ministry of Internal Affairs has helped us effectively in this area. All the vehicles of our system have been committed to achieving this goal.
There is one issue that I'd like to agree with you. Often these people do not have IDs and we find it hard to identify them to the extent necessary to issue IDs. It is equally hard to issue a refugee certificate, as there are other specific procedures for that. Therefore, we propose that if the data of these people crop up from the base, this means they are in the base and we should identify them by photo and issue a temporary refugee certificate to them in order for them to be able to fulfill elementary operations like presenting these documents to the bank to get pensions. You know that the bank won't pay pensions without these documents though their pensions, as far as I know, have already been transferred. This must be done either by my order or by resolution of the Government or even a presidential decree could be issued to permit it. We are now discussing the matters to legally formalize the issue and we'll have a solution today or tomorrow. We already have a sample, have prepared the material to print it with. The card is duly secured, fitted with certain watermarks. It is impossible to fake it within a short time and I hope we won't need it for a long time.
I have one more information, continued the Minister of Justice. You know that human corpses are being removed out of the conflict zone, including with the help of the clergy, and carried to our Forensic Examination Center and to the Republican Hospital. To make sure that the information on these people is not lost without trace, as so far no one has claimed relation to most of them, even if we identify them or even if we cannot identify them (as often the corpses are disfigured beyond identification), we obtain and keep DNA samples to identify DNA samples in case relatives inquire for them. Of course, we are going to bury the corpses but they will be identified by special numbers, and the DNA sample will have the same authentic number.
In conclusion, I'd like to publicly state that in this respect, we have two lawsuits: one in Strasbourg Court that has already issued a temporary injunction prohibiting Russian from performing all the acts that it is committing, including railway explosion and forest burning. This leads to ecological and humanitarian disasters and I am sure that Russian federation will come under heavy penalties. However, it is very important for us to calculate the material damage incurred to the country and we are going to hire a very influential auditing company. We could do it on our own but their calculations are of different value. Besides, they are impartial that will make a difference at the trial. We filed the other action with the Hague Criminal Court and think that we will win the case here, too. We have filed an application for a preliminary injunction and the hearing is scheduled for 8-10 September. It is a period of leave there and most of the judges are on leave. Strasbourg Court falls within our competence. As for the Hague Court, I propose that we set up an interdepartmental group under the supervision of the Ministry of Justice.
The Prime Minister of Georgia agreed with the proposal of the Minister of Justice. Afterwards, he asked Gia Nodia, the Minister of Education and Science of Georgia, regarding preparations for the next education year. The Prime Minister stated: the refuges have taken over a number of schools but we must make our best efforts to fine a more adequate facility that is better tailored to their needs. This also concerns the Ministry of Economic development, the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Refugees and Accommodation, and we must do our best to make sure that the education year starts in due time.
Gia Nodia, the Minister of Education and Science of Georgia, said: according to the estimates of this morning, there are approximately 30 000 refugees within the facilities of the education system, namely in schools, research institutes and universities. The Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia is closely cooperating with the Minister of Refugees and Accommodation to provide assistance to these people, as a number of facilities were under renovations. The staff of the Ministry has shifted all of its resources to tackle the issue. We have set up mobile groups to identify the most pressing issues and find ways to settle them jointly with the Minister of Refugees and Accommodation, City Hall and other organizations. This is our primary concern. As for the commencement of the education year, we presumed it would start from 1 September but we must evaluate and discuss the situation carefully, as we may have to postpone the commencement of the education year for a few weeks.
Ekaterine Sharashidze, the Minister of Economic development, asked for the floor to provide some information. She said: as Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Irakli Gvaladze is absent, I'd like to tell you that a fire is raging in the forest near Borjomi. Now we have been informed that Turkey has decided to help us like it did before. In a few hours they are going to send one or more planes that will take part in putting out the fire.
In this respect, the Prime Minister of Georgia said: I've been in contact with Irakli Gvaladze and Giorgi Khachidze the whole day. This is another act of barbarism and vandalism committed by the occupation forces. A large forest massive is on fire in Borjomi Region. We've been working with the Turkish side and other countries the whole day. I'd like to add that there was a contact between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Georgia and Russia to negotiate the opportunity for our helicopters to take part in extinguishing the blazing fire but hours have gone by and it does not seem to work. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia sort of agreed but the situation on the scene is too dangerous for our planes to safely discharge the extinguishing function. The Ministers of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources and the State Attorney-Governor are on the scene doing their best to make sure that the fire is at least localized.
Afterwards, the Prime Minister of Georgia said: these days we have seen the manifestations of our countrymen and friends in different countries. Iulon Gagoshidze, the State Minister of Georgia for Diaspora Affairs, has worked hard and demonstrated painstaking efforts. I'd like to express appreciations to all the representatives of our Diaspora for always staying with us.
Iulon Gagoshidze, the State Minister of Georgia for Diaspora Affairs said: our Diaspora around the globe is staging a concurrent manifestation. The manifestation will start now, has started in some places but what counts most is that they have started fundraising to assist Georgia. We have sent out bank details to all.
The Prime Minister of Georgia expressed satisfaction with the information provided by Iulon Gagoshidze, the State Minister of Georgia for Diaspora Affairs, saying: despite the many problems it had, the Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation is in rough times now. The same holds true with those who are in need of the Ministry. Sadly, the number has increased now but we hope for the time being. The Prime Minister of Georgia inquired about how coordinated the efforts of the Ministry with other agencies are.
In this respect, the Tamar Martiashvili, the Minister of Refugees and Accommodation of Georgia, said: the number of the refuges has increased. At this point, according to onsite tabulation, the number of the refugees in densely accommodated facilities has exceeded 62 000. As for the private sector, we do not have figures from it. There are over 520 densely accommodated buildings and facilities. The problem of food is being solved gradually, and the situation is becoming stable to this end.
As far as possible, we are working in close coordination with the City Hall as well as with other government structures. Yesterday, food was provided to 22 000 people in an organized manner. By the end of this day, some 44 000 people will have been fed. Now we have started to regulate the system to make sure that foot is provided on a daily basis to all those put on the file in all densely accommodated centers. Besides, international organizations, private companies, non-governmental organizations, public agencies assume duty on a variety of facilities, providing additional food stuffs in addition to those regularly provided. One of the critical problems is lack of beds. We are waiting for the cargo to arrive soon. The problem that has come to the fore now is lack of personal hygiene facilities. We'll try to tackle the problem. We have contacted a variety of personal hygiene agencies, hotels and the media. The system will start operation gradually. It will be a difficult and prolonged process, as we do not have as many facilities in the city as is necessary to handle so many people. We are setting up a center now but its throughput capacity is another question. Furthermore, to provide hot meals, we are forming a food center in the Military Hospital in Isani. We are implementing the project in coordination with the City Hall to handle 2500 people a day. This is the facility that accommodates this number of people. We'll get another similar center under the next project, and we'll choose a large refugee accommodate facility to set it up there. Besides, there is another pressing issue. People, particularly children, are suffering from a post-conflict trauma. In coordination with the Ministry of Education and Science, we'll launch the project very soon. It's about sending 300 children to Czech Republic for two weeks. We have negotiated the same with Poland as well. Other proposals also came in, and I'll advise you about them later. A number of programs have been launched and it is hard to name them all. I'd like to thank all, particularly our staff who for all this time, since the very first day, have been working in unimaginable conditions for 24 hours a day.
The Prime Minister of Georgia agreed with the words of the Minister of Refugees and Accommodation and then inquired about the situation in local self-government, as governors in a number of regions were under a lot of problems, particularly in regions occupied by the Russians, and the Prime Minister inquired about such problems.
Davit Tkeshelashvili, the State Minister of Georgia for Regional Government, said: no local government in municipalities, including in Shida Kartli and Samegrelo Regions, has stopped work even for a single day. These two regions have become a robber's paradise for the Russian occupants but the regional government holds on there. The same holds true across the whole country. Of course, now we are interested in these two regions. They are working on such problems as receipt of refugees, aid to the local population, supplying foodstuffs for the regions, etc. I'd like to say that jointly with the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation, Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs, we have set up a certain system of coordination. As far as reasonably practicable, all is done to make sure that humanitarian aid is delivered to the regions worst affected, particularly to Shida Kartli and Samegrelo. I can't give all the details but so far it's been impossible to open a humanitarian cordon. I mean the corridor that could have allowed adequate and timely assistance to the local population. Yesterday and today, we made a few such foodstuff deliveries, particularly in Gori Region and Gori per se for the people holding out in the city. Gori Local Administration is still in operation. The Presidential Attorney and the relevant agencies are there. There are many volunteers who have come to Gori to help the local government to effectively distribute the food provisions arriving there. But the core problem is that the blocking of the roads, particularly of the East-West Highway. We have the trucks loaded with foodstuffs waiting for the roads to open, particularly to Gori, Gori Region and other Shida Kartli regions. I'd also like to stress that we have not forgotten Samegrelo regions. For all these days we've been working non-stop in this area, too, to make sure that these regions are provided with flour, fuel, etc. At this point, we do not have any special problem, as everything has been organized and mobilized quite promptly. I'd like to repeat that the local governments in all the regions are in place, and settling to the extent possible the problems of the local residents and refugees there.
The Prime Minister of Georgia thanked State Minister of Georgia Davit Tkeshelashvili for the information.
Then Minister of Finance Nika Gilauri asked for the floor. He said: We have difficulties in delivering cargo but the four buses that were loaded have entered gori this morning. Just half an hour ago, a motorcade of 2 trucks and 14 buses loaded with foodstuffs moved from Kutaisi. They will try to distribute cargo in Kareli, Khashuri and Gori.
The Prime Minister of Georgia summed up the results of the work of the Meeting. He said: This is the current situation in our country, warts and all. These are the issues that the Government of Georgia is working on. We think all of us have seen that the economy of our nation has a huge resource of endurance and sustainability. The basis for this is that our citizens precisely evaluated the events, preserved peace, high sense of civil responsibility and to the extent possible all are pressing ahead in an ordinary mode, though the tragedy that unfolded in Georgia concerns all of us. I am confident that the resource of endurance and sustainability of the Georgia's economy will not expire within the next few days, weeks or months. I am equally sure that all our colleagues, whether in the central government or local government, will push ahead vigorously for as long as is necessary in these hard times. At the same time, considering that the enemy has materially damaged our civil infrastructure, we had the chance to hear Ms. Condoleezza Rice's talk about the matter. For the last week, we've been working with the US Treasury, other partners, International Monetary Fund to form, as soon as possible (naturally, the process will take a few weeks, and some components - even longer), the economic package of all our partner countries and all international financial institutions that will further strengthen the foundations for stabilization of the Georgian economy and finance the infrastructure rehabilitation projects. Besides, we have the obligation not to forget the refugees that we have as a result of the aggression.
The aid from our foreign friends is coming, it is being formalized now. I do not mean humanitarian aid only. First of all, it is the economic package that we are working on now. This is done because Georgia is (and we have seen this very clearly in these days) and will always be an integral part of the free world with her very dynamic, liberal, flexible and open economy. Today, on my invitation, Tbilisi was visited by Davit Cameron, the Leader of the Conservative Party of Great Britain. He met with the President of Georgia, the Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. I also had a meeting with him. We had the time enough to discuss not only Georgia's current problems but also the economic policy, the fiscal, monetary and other policies that Georgia has pursued for the last few years. I'd like to tell you that Mr. Cameron was impressed with the economic policy that Georgia has adhered to for the last few years. This is particularly worth mentioning, as the Conservative Party is Margaret Thatcher's party who was its leader and no one in Europe has carried out as liberal economic reforms as she did.
All of this gives us a reason for optimism, though much still remains to be done. We are going to overcome the challenges of this stage by all means, with the help of our friends we will rehabilitate the infrastructure and nothing can derail us from the road to building a liberal economy that we embarked on a few years ago. Thank you.
Organizational Department of the Chancellery of the Government of Georgia