GEORGIA’S TEENAGE CRIME SCOURGE
By Nana Kurashvili in Tbilisi
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[02:20 pm] 23 June, 2007
The authorities lower the age of criminal responsibility to 12
following a wave of adolescent violence.
A piece of black drapery with two framed photos attached to it hangs
at the entrance of Tbilisi’s School No. 43. One of the photos shows a
girl with plaits and a playful smile, while a boy scowls out of the
other one. A vase with fresh flowers stands next to the pictures,
together with a number of letters spread out like a fan, one saying,
"Salome and Nika, we will never forget you!"
The last ring of the school bell, usually a joyful event marking the
beginning of summer holidays and celebrations for school leavers,
was not heard in the school this year after these two pupils were
murdered within a week of one another in May.
Fourteen-year-old Salome Mamatsashvili – the girl with the plaits in
the photograph – was found dead in the doorway of a block of flats a
short distance from her home on May 12. Her body bore multiple stab
wounds. A suspect detained by police, David Tabidze, an 18-year-old
living in the same block of flats as the Mamatsashvilis, has denied
killing her.
The girl had gone out for a walk with her friends and never came
back. The following morning, Salome’s mother identified her daughter’s
body at the morgue.
Salome kept a diary and after her death, her mother learnt from the
diary that Salome was in love with David.
Five days before this killing, 11th grader Nika Chankseliani, 17,
was shot dead in a fight involving pupils from his and another
schools. He died of eight gunshot wounds. A 14-year-old has been
accused of killing Nika, who was due to leave school in a few days.
There is growing public anxiety about the rise in teenage violence
in Georgia, and the topic eclipsed all others in news coverage in May.
The interior ministry reports that of the seven premeditated killings
committed in May, five of the victims were minors.
Parliament responded to the surge in juvenile violence by
making changes to the country’s criminal code to lower the age of
responsibility from 14 to 12. This means a 12-year-old found guilty
of committing a serious crime is liable to be punished as an adult.
The government says the changes will come into force as soon as
appropriate conditions for young offenders are introduced in the
prisons.
The move drew criticism from the international human rights group,
Human Rights Watch. Its Europe and Central Asia director Holly
Cartner said, "By lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility,
Georgia has gone against international and European standards.
States are supposed to work to establish higher, not lower, ages of
criminal responsibility."
Parliament also plans to pass a "law against antisocial behaviour" in
the near future, which will oblige school administrations and police to
monitor teenagers deemed to be prone to violence. Under the draft law,
parents whose children have committed a crime will have to pay a fine.
In April and May, Georgian television channels reported on a spate
of violent crimes committed by and against teenagers.
On the evening of May 17, a 17-year-old schoolboy was killed in a
shooting incident, while on May 7, a 14-year-old was stabbed to death
in a school playground.
A few days before that, Revaz Pukhashvili was killed after he refused
to lend his father’s car to another boy. On the same day, seventh-form
student Enriko Janelidze was seriously wounded in a fight, but his
life was saved by doctors.
On May 1, a group of around ten teenagers attacked Tbilisi resident
Giorgi Aptsiauri, 20, and stabbed him several times.
On April 18, three tenth-graders killed a classmate with a knitting
needle in the yard of their school in the Ozurgeti district of western
Georgia. Two days before that, 15-year-old Grigory Martashenko was
killed by 15 shots in the centre of Tbilisi. Earlier in the month,
a 14-year-old shot one of his classmates and the head of the local
hunting association.
Officials accept that there is a serious problem, but have also
accused television reports of playing it up.
"It’s unnecessary and wrong to dramatise the situation," said education
minister Alexander Lomaia.
Giorgi Bokeria, one of the leaders of the pro-government majority
in parliament, cited "a syndrome of impunity that has been rooted in
the country for years" as one of the causes of the recent adolescent
violence.
"The state with its legitimate right to retribution, the family where
the child grows up, the school he goes to – these are components that
should be working together in solving this," he said. "Adolescents
should know that they won’t go unpunished."
But parliamentary speaker Nino Burjanadze said the problem would not
be solved by tightening up the law alone.
"A tough response alone won’t lead us to a real result," she
said. "First of all, we should discover the reasons why incidents
like these happen and why they have become more frequent, and then
we should start combating the causes, not the consequences."
Psychologist Sophio Verulashvili also said it was wrong to blame
the children.
"This is the generation whose childhood coincided with a difficult
social and economic situation in Georgia, when their parents were
either desperate and at home, or permanently absent," she told IWPR.
"In actual fact, there was no one to bring up these children. When
there was electricity in their homes, they got poor-quality information
from television.
Otherwise, they whiled away their time on the streets.
"No one was there to educate them, and the consequences of this are
what we see today."
Gia Murgulia, the headmaster of Tbilisi School No. 24, said parents
and children were not communicating properly.
"Because of social problems, parents fail to pay proper attention
to their children," he said. "There’s no dialogue going on between
parents and children.
School plays an essential role, but, to my mind, family upbringing
is of prime importance."
In most of the recent cases cited above, the firearms used by the
minors involved belonged to family members.
Knives are on sale everywhere in Tbilisi. There is a great variety on
display in a stall in the underground passage right opposite School
No 1, although the salesman told IWPR he never sold knives to minors.
"I am not familiar with the law, but I think it’s something that is
regulated by a moral code – I would never sell a knife to a lad. But
some other seller might," he said.
Schoolchildren say carrying weapons has become fashionable.
"Many guys think that once they have a knife in their pocket and can
fight, they’ll be more admired by the girls, and that they’ll become
the coolest and most popular boys in their school," said Mari, a girl
aged 14.
"That may be true up to a point, but personally I don’t like boys
like that."
Nana Kurashvili is a correspondent for Imedi television in Tbilisi.
Institute for War and Peace Reporting’s Caucasus Reporting Service.