Lana Kokaia

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Lana Kokaia is a multimedia journalist originally from Gali District. She has been a journalist since 2015.

The coal mines in Tkibuli. Photo: Lana Kokaia/OC Media.

Feature Stories

‘We all have bronchitis’ — the blackened lungs of Georgia’s coal miners

by Lana Kokaia

•6 min read

The owners of the coal mines in the Georgian mining town of Tkibuli deny that any employees have job-related illnesses. The miners themselves tell a different story. On 21 July 2020, Amiran Bochorishvili, a 65-year-old miner in Tkibuli, marched into the office of the director of the Mindeli Mine and cut open his wrist. After 40 years working 300 metres underground, the mining company, Saknakhshiri, attempted to transfer Bochorishvili to surface duties, cutting his salary from around ₾900 ($

Mine workers inside the Mindeli coal mine in Tkibuli, Georgia. Photo: Lana Kokaia/OC Media.

Feature Stories

Stuck between a rock and a hard place — the miners of Tkibuli

by Lana Kokaia

•7 min read

When an explosion in the Mindeli mine in the west-Georgian town of Tkibuli killed four and injured six, coal mining in the town briefly shut down. In the interim, some miners have sought work abroad, while others stayed to work for new owners. In either case, the miners found little respite. Khvicha Gabunia, 32, is an economist by training. Ten years ago, after failing to find a job in his field, he started working in the Mindeli mine — the only operating mine in Tkibuli, and its largest em

Feature Stories

Kutaisi’s broken dreams: the fate of Georgia’s abandoned parliament

by Lana Kokaia

•8 min read

The newly created civic movement ‘Leave Parliament in Kutaisi’ is fighting to bring the Georgian parliament back to Kutaisi, after a series of broken promises have left the city reeling. ‘With this decision, Georgian Dream told Kutaisi to die’, Eka Pkhakadze, a leader of Leave Parliament in Kutaisi (LPK), a Kutaisi-based advocacy group, tells OC Media. She says that LPK will not allow any political party to run a successful election campaign in Kutaisi unless they declare that the par

Abkhazia

Voice | ‘My family and I have been made refugees twice’

by Lana Kokaia

•6 min read

The Kodori Valley, populated mainly by Svans, was the only corner of Abkhazia under Georgian Government control before the August 2008 War. According to the Tbilisi-based Government of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, around 2,860 people lived in the valley before the war, all of whom fled their homes. Only 55 families have returned; Raisa Khachvani, 62, is still waiting to do so. ‘Imagine you lose everything, you no longer have anything, and are starting life from scratch. All this

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