The Prosecutor's Office of Georgia has launched an investigation into the possible falsification of a memorandum signed by the Georgian Manganese company with the residents of Shukruti village in Chiatura.
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The company refers to this memorandum when claiming that:
- It has the consent of the local population to extract manganese in Shukruti through both open-pit and underground mining;
- The terms and conditions for compensation payments have been agreed upon with the local residents.
The memorandum is dated June 11, 2020, and is valid for 15 years (until the summer of 2034). It contains burdensome terms that are unfavorable to the rural population. The document only became accessible to the locals after Georgian Manganese initiated legal proceedings against the participants of the ongoing protest, submitting the memorandum as evidence in the lawsuit.
"At present, we are protecting the rights of at least 30 families living in Shukruti, and none of those under our protection had seen the memorandum. The company attached this document to the lawsuits filed against the protestors. The directly affected citizens did not sign the memorandum, nor were they shown the document. Based on the explanations given to us by the victims, company representatives came to the Shukruti residents with blank sheets, telling them that if they wanted to receive compensation, they had to sign the sheet. As per the text of the memorandum, the attachment (blank sheet) could be signed by any person, even though only the owners would be compensated for the damage.
The main purpose of the memorandum is to bind the population so that the company can continue its operations without interruption, despite the irreparable damage caused to settlements and private property.
The memorandum is entirely one-sided and tailored solely to the interests of Shukruti + LLC. Almost every article includes conditions that are undeniably burdensome, putting the owners in a harmful situation and directly contradicting existing legislation," said Vladimir Kutateladze, a lawyer at the Civil Advocacy Center, in an interview with Mtis Ambebi.
For example, according to clause 4.2 of the memorandum, during its validity, if even one of its signatories interferes with the company in any way, the company is entitled to stop payments to all owners and recover the amounts already paid from all signatory owners.
"The company effectively restricts residents from expressing any kind of protest and also introduces collective responsibility, which is prohibited by law.
These clauses in the memorandum are quite absurd, especially considering that, according to clause 1.1, compensation is given only to the 'owner,' while the attachment is signed by any person who would not lose anything in case of a violation of the memorandum," the lawyer explained.
According to clause 4.4 of the memorandum, if Shukruti+ LLC halts mining activities for any reason during the entire term of the memorandum, both Shukruti+ and Georgian Manganese LLC are released from the obligation to provide any form of compensation to the affected population.
As the lawyer said, there is a well-founded suspicion that the actions of Georgian Manganese may constitute a crime under Article 362 of the Criminal Code (production and use of a false document), which is why the Prosecutor's Office was asked to initiate an investigation.
The complaint is supported by the signatures of 134 residents of Shukruti, who confirm that they signed a blank sheet of paper in exchange for the promise of compensation and were not informed of the terms of the memorandum.
Georgian Manganese LLC has been mining manganese in the Chiatura municipality since 2007. Both in Shukruti village and in the neighboring settlements, conditions resembling an ecological disaster have been created. The situation worsened even further after 2017, when the government of Georgian Dream appointed a special manager to the company.
Since March 13, residents of Shukruti have been continuously protesting near the Korokhnali mine. Prior to the protest, a large fissure - almost 2 kilometers long - opened in the middle of the village, and it continues to grow larger and deeper, running through the entire settlement.
Since the victims failed to attract the attention of the central government, and no one responded to the uncontrolled activities of Georgian Manganese, on September 1, five participants in the protest cut their faces in a desperate act. Currently, 12 people, including four women, are on a hunger strike in front of the parliament building in Tbilisi. The hunger strikers have been protesting in the open for 24 hours, even in pouring rain, because the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not allow them to set up tents.
Georgian Manganese has filed a lawsuit against the protest participants and their relatives, demanding 5.5 million GEL in damages. Additionally, they are asking that, upon the company's first request, the yards and plots of the protestors be vacated and handed over. This means that the houses, which are damaged, in the process of destruction, or under threat, should be demolished, the area cleaned, and then handed over to the company in their current state. The court has confiscated the property of the protestors and their relatives.
