We express our concern about the incident taken place in Gardabani on May 28, when groups of individuals living in Gardabani region abused each other physically. As reported by news agencies, the attack was so serious that there was a need to mobilize special task force for resolution of the conflict (witnesses allege that up to 300 individuals participated in the conflict).

 

Ambako Avaliani, acting Gamgebeli of Gardabani municipality reports that the group of individuals chaired by the head of Gardabani organization of “the United National Movement” provoked the conflict.  

 

Members of the United National Movement have another version and report that members of the “Georgian Dream” Office had attacked their representatives in the region.

 

Journalists and witnesses, however stress ethnic motives of the conflict and mention that the yesterdays’ incident started with verbal conflict among Svaneti residents and Azeri nationals. Moreover, local residents express their dissatisfaction about impotence of law enforcement agencies, since they failed to curb wide scale conflict and to start investigation of the incident on time.

 

Regretfully, the state fell short to resolve the problem effectively. Any conflict that develops on the ethnic motives, notwithstanding of its reasons, may bring irreparable harm to the state. It is noteworthy, that such incidents may become frequent in pre-election period and the developments in Gardabani is a clear example thereto.

 

On May 29, political parties used to release diverse information about the conflict and proposed different interpretation about the motives of the conflict to public. We call on all individuals involved in political activities to refrain from using the alleged ethnic conflict for political purposes and to  avoid artificial escalation of the problem. Any such attempt will have adverse effective on the society. 

 

We condemn stimulation of ethnic or others conflicts for political or any other motives. We call on law enforcement agencies for rapid and effective investigation of the fact and for bringing initiators of the conflict to justice. The Ministry of Interior should ensure security of public and should carry out all possible legislative measures with a view to resolve conflicting situation and punish the offenders. Moreover, law enforcement representatives are not only responsible to react on legislative violations, but also to avoid physical attacks or other violations of law with effective preventive measures, which was not implemented in the case concerned by the police. Furthermore, we  opine that Gamgebeli of Marneuli region should reveal more responsibility and refrain from making early political statements.