Georgian Manganese–linked company attacks critics and media covering Shukruti hunger strike 

A company that has been linked to mining firm Georgian Manganese has claimed that people on hunger strike over the destruction of their homes are being ‘fully managed’ by NGOs and media organisations, including OC Media.

Chiatura Management Company stated on Thursday that they had ‘reasonable suspicions’ that the demonstrators were ‘backed by non-governmental organisations that are also directly connected to radical political parties, which in turn use the protests for their own narrow party interests’.

Residents of Shukruti have been protesting for several years demanding compensation for damage and destruction to their village they say is the result of mining by Georgian Manganese under their village. After restarting their protests in March, residents of Shukruti began a hunger strike in September, now maintaining a round the clock protest outside parliament.

Another statement published by Chiatura Management Company on Thursday came in response to a post by OC Media director Mariam Nikuradze including a photo of a damaged home in Shukruti. 

The company claimed the owner of the property had already been compensated and said they ‘consider it unacceptable speculating with already compensated, damaged property and presenting as if the company did not respond to the existing damage’.

Protesters vehemently denied to OC Media that Georgian Manganese had honored a prior agreement to compensate them.

Despite appearing to speak for Georgian Manganese, Georgian Manganese denied that the statements published by Chiatura Management Company represented their own position.

Asked if Chiatura Management Company was a contractor of Georgian Manganese, the company said only that ‘Chiatura Management Company is a management company for mining activities in Chiatura, operating since February 2024’.

OC Media was unable to verify the ultimate beneficial ownership of Chiatura Management Company. The company is owned by another Georgian company, New Group, which is in turn owned by Cyprus-based Mchale Limited. 

The director of Chiatura Management Company is Ukrainian citizen Maxim Mazurenko. According to Sakartvelos Ambebi, Mazurenko is a ‘trusted associate’ of Igor Kolomoisky, a Ukrainian oligarch and majority shareholder of Georgian Manganese.

Georgian Manganese owns the license to operate mines in and around Chiatura, a town in western Georgia.

‘It’s clear that the company is trying to mislead the public’

In their first statement  on Thursday, Chiatura Management Company named human rights group the Social Justice Centre, environmental group Green Alternative, as well as the left-wing activist group Khma among those they claimed were behind the protest.

‘It is known to the public that all these organisations have political affiliation and are distinguished by radical actions and encouragement of radical actions’, they said.

Salome Shubladze, the director of social policy at the Social Justice Centre, told OC Media the company’s rhetoric resembled that of the government, which regularly attacks media and civil society organisations. 

Georgian Manganese has for several years been under state management. 

She said the company was trying to ‘delegitimise’ the demonstrators by tying them to the opposition ‘because trust in the parties is very low’.

She said it was impossible to talk about ‘any party interest’ from the opposition.

‘We criticise the [political opposition] parties because they are not interested enough in social issues. On the contrary, there should be more parties and politicians who will talk about it now, because it is a very hot social issue that worries our population’.

‘It’s clear that the company is trying to mislead the public as it has no answer as to whether the people of Shukruti have been properly compensated’, she said.

‘We are not the kind of people to be intimidated’

In their statements the Chiatura Management Company published bank statements that they claimed showed that residents of Shukruti had already received the compensation they were promised.

However, protesters have denied this, even accusing the company of falsifying the documents.

‘Involve the prosecutor’s office, we will provide all kinds of documentation to investigate what the company is manipulating’, Giorgi Neparidze, a resident of Shukruti, told OC Media. 

Shubladze said the company was attempting to mislead the public by showing the transfers and pretending local residents had been satisfied, ‘when it is evident to all who have a little knowledge [of the cases] that a large number of people are not satisfied at all.

She also questioned the extent to which compensation that had been issued was ‘full, adequate and fair’.

Janiko Labadze, a resident of Shukruti told OC Media that they had come to an agreement with Georgian Manganese in 2021 which had at first been fulfilled by the company. He said that after several transfers were made for a handful of residents in the first months, in the last three years the company had stopped communicating with them.

Residents also insist they are not just asking for compensation, but for the damage done to their properties to be properly assessed.

Jubo Tsutskiridze, who began his hunger strike 27 days ago, told OC Media they were still waiting for a full assessment of the damages to their village from the National Bureau of Forensic Expertise.

Georgian Manganese told OC Media that a segment of Shukruti’s population had chosen to be assessed by a private auditor and had received ‘appropriate compensation’. They said that those who had requested an assessment from the National Bureau of Forensic Expertise had subsequently rejected their assessment.

Asked why Georgian Manganese had not published the Bureau’s conclusion, they referred OC Media to the Chiatura Management Company.

Tsutskiridze and others deny seeing the assessment, and have called for it to be published, even offering to return any compensation money he had received if it was more than he and his family were due.

Tsutskiridze said they had repeatedly attempted to negotiate with the company, ‘but they did not want to negotiate with us.’

‘On the contrary, they try to intimidate people through many methods, blackmailing, scaring children, firing people, but we are not the kind of people to be intimidated’, he said.

The protesters have also repeatedly called on representatives of the company to hold live debates with them to challenge their arguments. On Thursday, they marched to the offices of the Public Broadcaster to demand they cover the protest and organise such a debate. Georgian Manganese did not respond to their request.

The Chiatura Management Company did not respond to a request for comment.

Update, 28 September 2024: The Chiatura Management Company responded to OC Media’s inquiries, offering to show the conclusions of the National Bureau of Forensic Expertise only in person.

‘Since February 2024, Chiatura Management Company, which is a management group composed of Ukrainian and Georgian specialists, has been conducting mining activities in Chiatura’, they said.

‘As you know, Chiatura enterprises are unprofitable, at the same time, there is a  global crisis in the manganese market. Therefore, in order to correct the situation and overcome the crisis, Georgian Manganese invited us and handed over the enterprises to us to manage. Our goal is for the company to ensure the management of Chiatura enterprises, the introduction of modern technologies in mining operations and the realisation of new projects so that the process of ore extraction can be carried out effectively. However, based on the current situation, in parallel with the global crisis on the manganese market and ongoing protests, Chiatura Management Company is unable to produce competitive products, which creates a real basis for the company not being able to keep employees or pay them salaries.’

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