Compensation row prompted violent pipeline protest in Georgia

A-Info news agency
20 Aug 04

AKHALKALAKI

On 20 August in the morning an extraordinary situation arose again in
the village of Tabatsquri in Georgia’s Borjomi District. Some
residents of the village, anti-Ceyhaners who oppose the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline , are demanding compensation and say that
compensation should be paid to all the villagers, so they tried to
obstruct construction work on the pipeline. The police who were there
used force against the villagers. In turn the villagers threw stones
at the policemen and BP cars.

The previous evening representatives of the district administration
handed to some villagers property certificates for their land used by
BP . The villagers who did not receive privatization certificates were
amazed that their fellow-villagers had been given the certificates
away from the village and outside working hours.

The employees of BP hoped that the problem had been resolved and they
could get back work, so they tried to move their equipment to
Tabatsquri. There they met resistance, resulting in the scandal.

Passage omitted