HEROES OF THE VISA WAR
Olga Allenova
Kommersant, Russia
Oct 18 2006
Crowds Meet Deported Georgians in Tbilisi
A Russian Emergencies Ministry plane arrived in Tbilisi yesterday
carrying 150 Georgian citizens who were being deported from Russia.
They were given a hero’s welcome. That flight, which was supposed to
have brought to Tbilisi a Georgian citizen named Tengiz Togonidze who
died in Moscow on the way to the airport, delivered a crushing blow
to the remnants of Russia’s authority in the region. Kommersant’s
special correspondent Olga Allenova has the details.
That day, the Tbilisi airport was particularly crowded: besides
the usual crowds accompanying and meeting travelers, there were also
journalists and representatives of the Russian embassy and the Georgian
authorities. Even several additional fast food restaurants had opened
in the departure hall. The Emergencies Ministry (MChS) flight, which
was expected at 16:00, was delayed until 18:00: a Georgian citizen
named Tengiz Togonidze, who was supposed to be on the flight, died on
Moscow on the road to Domodedovo airport. As soon as the news reached
Georgia, it was clear that a turning point had been reached in the
cold war between Moscow and Tbilisi. The two sides will have to come
to an agreement now or never. Judging by the scene in the airport,
those in Georgia have cast their vote in favor of the latter.
The approximately one hundred Russian citizens who were preparing
to leave Georgia on the same MChS plane were reluctant to speak with
journalists. Only one woman responded, when asked why she was leaving,
"since it’s possible, I’m going." Airport workers said that those who
are leaving are mainly Armenians and some Georgians who have succeeded
in obtaining Russian citizenship. "Why are they leaving?" parroted a
security services official at the airport, his voice heavy with irony
– "because it’s free!" A little while later, the same man explained
with dignity to journalists that President Saakashvili has forbidden
cargo planes from the Russian MChS to fly into Georgia so that Russia
has been forced to send an Il-62 passenger plane instead of stuffing
people into cargo planes like cattle. Valery Vasiliev, the Russian
consul in Georgia, told me that this will probably be the last plane
that will take Russian citizens out of Georgia: all of those who wanted
to leave Georgia, around 500 people, have already left. In reply to
the question of how it came about that a person being deported by
Russia died on the road to the airport, the consul answered, "it is
a very sad event, there will be an investigation," but said nothing
more concrete. That was provided by Georgian ombudsman Sozar Subari:
"It is run-of-the-mill fascism," he said. "It’s Nazism. I approached
the Russian ombudsman with a request that he intervene in this outrage,
if in Russian some kind of positive forces still exist. Out of the
150 people deported today, more than half have normal documents and
the right to live in Russia!"
When the people from the MChS plane cleared passport control and
began to trickle into the arrival hall, they were surrounded by a
wall of journalists so solid that it was difficult to push through
it. Those who arrived did not want to comment. Someone shielded his
face with his hands, and another covered his head with his coat as he
pushed through the throng. The men, frowning, haphazardly attired and
with unshaven cheeks, were irritated and embittered, and the women
were distraught. One of them, who was carrying a child in her arms,
stopped as a microphone was thrust at her. "Why did they arrest you?"
she was asked. "My visa was not in order," said the woman. "What will
you do now?" "I don’t know! I have no idea what to do!" The following
dialogue was had with another man:
"How long did they hold you in the isolation unit?"
"Ten days."
"Ten days?!! How did they treat you?"
"Badly."
"Why did they arrest you?"
"Because I’m a Georgian."
Many explained their arrest in similar terms. Someone said something
in Georgian about Russian Nazism; someone showed his passport, which
had a Russian visa, and said that they had no right to kick him out.
Someone mentioned a week of incarceration in an isolation unit,
where it was even forbidden to wash. Someone simply broke down in
tears of humiliation.
I glanced at the ombudsman, Mr. Subari, whose eyes were aflame. I
think he was feeling these people’s humiliation as keenly as they
themselves were. And I felt burning shame for my country.
A young woman from the Georgian Education Ministry stopped children
and teenagers and pressed into their hands a booklet that had "Welcome
Home!" written across it. On the other side of the booklet, a notice
from the Education Ministry explained that all schoolchildren who had
been forced to leave Russia would now be attending Georgian schools
and that they should call such-and-such a number so that they would be
accepted into school. The children hid the booklets in their pockets,
and their mothers cried.
The Russian Federal Migration Service stated that day that all of
the deportees had overstayed their visas or did not have visas at all.
The service also said that the Russian budget allocates about 27,000
rubles for the deportation of a migrant, which includes expenditures
for tickets, detention in a special holding area, medicine, and food.
But in the case of the deported Georgians, the budget was economized
by half: the deportation of a single Georgian was managed by the
government for only 13,000 rubles. Maybe that’s why Tengiz Togonidze,
an asthmatic, died when he wasn’t given medication in time.
In Georgia yesterday thousands of people saw on their television
screens their compatriots and their visas, both overstayed and valid.
Thousands of people heard the story of Tengiz Togonidze. Thousands of
people in Georgia asked each other for the third time – this was the
third MChS plane from Russia – why it was necessary to so thoroughly
humiliate the Georgians, who were once desired guests in Russia. I
am certain that these people will never forget what they have seen.
"Russia shown has its face once again," Georgian Minister for Refugees
Georgy Kheviashvili told me. "Russia has shown that it is impossible
to live with it in peace. Russia has done everything to push Georgia
as far away as possible. Well, thanks for the gift. I don’t doubt
that we will be able to use what has happened in our own interests."
I also have no doubt.
_Georgians_Tbilisi/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
