Conflict Over Illegal Logging in Svaneti

Yesterday in the Svaneti region, conflict broke out on the road connecting Mestia and Zugdidi, near the villages of Khaishi and Chuberi.

The Ministry of Finance’s Investigative Service mobilized a special task force to the villages of Khaishi and Chuberi to protect Investigative Service employees, who met with resistance from local loggers while trying to crack down on illegal forestry activities in the area.

 “The employees of the Investigative Service of the Ministry of Finance detained 15 individuals in July of the current year for the illegal sale of wooden materials using fake tax documents. At this stage, investigative activities are being conducted in the Imereti, Adjara, Kakheti, Guria, Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti, Shida Kartli, Samtskhe-Javakheti and Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti regions,” said a statement release by the Ministry of Finance yesterday.

At a press briefing yesterday evening, Giorgi Elgandashvili, Chief of the Tbilisi Department of the Investigative Service, said that locals blocked the road, damaged a vehicle of the Investigative Service by throwing rocks and sticks, and threatened investigators’ lives and health.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs also released a statement, saying that police officers had been sent to Khaishi to control the scene. The road between Mestia and Zugdidi has now been reopened.

By Samantha Guthrie