A mining firm has been accused of sending men to violently disperse a protest outside one of their mines near the Georgian mining town of Chiatura in order to reopen the mine by force.

On 20 July, a group of men arrived at the entrance of the Korokhnali Mine and began pushing and arguing with protesters in an attempt to remove them. 

The mine has been closed for over four months, after residents of the nearby village of Shukruti began blockading the entrance. Residents say the mine has led to the collapse of their village, and they are demanding compensation.

‘They come here, destroy our houses without warning, without giving alternative housing or money, then they come and tell us to let them in the mine, while they dug up entire bottom of the village, Zoia Popkhadze, one of the protesting Shukrutians told OC Media.

The confrontation on Saturday lasted several hours, during which an ambulance was called after several protesters said they had become unwell. The men eventually left and the protest resumed.

Protesters claimed to have recognised senior managers from Georgian Manganese among the men who attacked them.

Asked for clarification regarding the situation, a spokesperson for Georgian Manganese did not return our calls or respond to emails. 

Eter Gaprindashvili, who has been protesting against Georgian Manganese since 2019, was also outside the mine entrance on Saturday. Together with two other women, she attempted to block the men from opening the gates of the mine entrance. 

‘I resisted, I stood in front of them. It is not correct [what they did]. We have permission to hold this strike, we have the document’, she said.

Gaprindashvili also claimed the men, who were not wearing any uniforms, refused to identify themselves.

‘They didn’t answer. They pushed us and went in to open the gate. There were three of us, three women, the men were stronger’, she said. 

Jumber Tsutskiridze, one of the protesters from Shukruti, told OC Media he was fired several days earlier. Tsutskiridze said he had worked in the Mghvimevi Mine as an excavator operator for seven years. He said he received notice of being fired via post and was suing the company for wrongful dismissal, as he believed he was fired because of the protest.

‘Now I come to the protest with my nine-month-old child’, Tsutskiridze told OC Media. ‘We protest this injustice. A lot of the houses won’t even survive, the situation is that bad, but we try to at least stop it, because if they continue, nothing will be left in the village.’ 

Protesters told OC Media that since they resumed their protest in March, no one has reached out to them from the local government, central government, the Public Defender’s office, or any opposition party. 

Sowing division 

Protesters have also accused the company of attempting to sow division within their community. They said that several people from their village had been deceived into accompanying the men who attempted to reopen the mine 

The protesters told OC Media that the people from the village came because they were told the company would be presenting a new offer of compensation to them. 

‘This was the most painful thing to see for me,’ said Tamuna Gureashvili, one of the protesters from Shukruti. She added that the company often attempted to sow conflict between villagers, including by lying to them. She said they had told some people from the village that the protesters had already taken hundreds of thousands of lari in compensation for the damage. 

‘We meet in the street almost every day, they just stood there and observed the violence against us, they didn’t help us, despite saying they didn’t know what was happening here’, she said.

The land in and around Shukruti began to collapse in 2019, with Georgian Manganese initially denying any connection to the mines running beneath it.

Protests by residents of Shukruti culminated in a 30-day hunger strike in 2021, during which several residents sewed their lips shut to demand compensation for the damage to their homes. Most of them rejoined the protest five months ago, when it resumed. 

[Read more: In Pictures | Living on the brink of collapse in Shukruti]

Tamuna Kupatadze, another of the protesters, said the company had not fulfilled the agreement they signed in 2021 which ended their protest at the time. 

‘We faced a huge lie. I will not forgive them that big lie, which is why I am here once again, to protect our houses, our church, the graves of our ancestors and loved ones, and I will fight till the end,’ she said. 

Despite the pressure, the protesters have vowed to continue until they receive compensation.

‘Too much disappointment, lies, and insults triggered this protest; what happened on Saturday, just strengthened my anger, it gave me power, energy to continue protest until we win’, Zoia Popkhadze told OC Media.

‘We have a very rich village. You’d think, we were lucky, but on the contrary, these riches destroyed us, they destroyed our houses, made us poor. These riches brought nothing good to us’, Tengiz Gaprindashvili, another resident of Shukruti  said.