The Messenger, Georgia
Jan 20 2005
Sabotage in Kodori takes out Kavkasioni
Electricity officials link attack to local residents seeking jobs as guards
By Christina Tashkevich
Georgian law enforcers continue to investigate Tuesday’s failure of
the Kavkasioni high-voltage transmission line that imports
electricity from Russia via Georgia’s Kodori Gorge.
Evidence suggests sabotage is to blame for the failure of the line in
the gorge, a failure that put significant strain on the country’s
energy grid until the line was reconnected at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday.
According to government officials, the line was damaged by gunfire.
“The line itself is not broken, an insulator was damaged,” the
Minister of Police and Public Safety Vano Merabishvili said late on
Tuesday after arriving in Kutaisi with a special law enforcement
unit.
The attack damaged all the insulating chains which support the line
on one tower and one insulating chain on a second tower, according to
the Georgian State Electrosystem (GSE). A note was found nearby
threatening injury to anyone who attempted to repair the line.
Merabishvili promised his ministry’s armed unit would ensure the
safety of workers doing repairs on the line.
On Tuesday, Minister of Energy Nika Gilauri said he did not know how
much time the repairs would take, although he warned Tbilisi might
face electricity problems during the week.
“If Kavkasioni is not connected, there will be more limitations in
Tbilisi,” the technical director of Tbilisi’s distributor Telasi,
Algirdas Kirnish, told journalists on Tuesday.
Gilauri, however, promised that Telasi will equally distribute the
existing energy supplies among all Tbilisi districts. Without imports
from Russia, Georgia must instead rely on electricity imports from
Armenia and energy generated by the Enguri hydroelectric dam and the
Ninth power plant at Tbiltsresi, Gardabani.
The Director General of GSE, Joe Corbett, confirmed on Wednesday that
a note was found near to the damaged tower threatening attacks on
workers who attempt to repair the line, a fact that led him to
suspect local residents.
“This is done to extort money,” he said, explaining that local
residents are the ones typically hired as guards to prevent further
attacks. “This has happened in past years and it is now likely
happening again,” he said.
The government stressed the importance of investigating the situation
in the Kodori Gorge. Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania said Kodori Gorge
should be “an object of particular care” for the government.
Meanwhile the Secretary of the National Security Council Gela
Bezhuashvili denied media reports that the government plans to launch
a special law enforcement operation in Kodori. “We don’t plan to
launch any special operation: there is no need for that,”
Bezhuashvili assured journalists on Tuesday.
The government and international donors have repeatedly emphasized
the importance of securing Georgia’s energy facilities from sabotage.
Kavkasioni has been a target for criminals and even for those
protesting energy shortages in the regions, and several times in 2004
the line was attacked.
“We will not allow anyone to threaten Georgia’s five-million
residents and blackmail them with sitting in the dark,” Prime
Minister Zhvania said on Tuesday.