American military raises hopes in depressed Georgian city

A EurasiaNet Photo Essay by Molly Corso: 10/04/02

Rumors suggest that Russian President Vladimir Putin may condone American attacks if the United States gives him a free hand in Georgia. In Georgia's Kritanisi, Medico Jibladze cares more about a rumor that American soldiers training at the nearby army base need a driver.

The United States has provided soldiers and dollars for the Georgia Train and Equip program since February, supported by claims of rooting out al Qaeda terrorists and providing real benefit to poor Georgians like Jibladze who live near army bases. Jibladze's husband has struggled to make his minibus business pay the family's bills. The rumor that Americans will pay $200 a month for a local person to drive them around strikes her as a message from heaven. She exulted about the idea, repeating the details of the potential job over and over. The Americans would even pay for gas and repairs, she noted.

American soldiers in Georgia are ostensibly out to help the local army find and neutralize al Qaeda terrorists in the Pankisi Gorge, a frequently lawless region of Georgia that borders Chechnya. Many analysts have speculated about the military benefits and political consequences of the American presence, which curtails Russia's hegemony over Georgia and Pankisi in particular. Fewer observers have noted the immediate change that American soldiers and dollars have brought to the lives of Georgian civilians. As these pictures show, most Georgian citizens inhabit a world of old homes, dirt roads and low-technology retail. While the presence of al Qaeda loyalists on Georgian soil remains unconfirmed, the spread of poverty in the country shows undeniable effects.

Jobs are hard to come by and salaries are low, when companies manage to pay them at all. Miners and electrical workers in the region have staged protests and organized hunger strikes to protest slow and meager pay. The city of Rustavi, once an industrial center, has slid into a state of decay. According to the management of the AZOTI Chemical Factory, the city's last remaining major factory, 35 major industries once operated in Rustavi. Now there is AZOTI, open but not to full capacity, and a handful of smaller operations.

Pelo Buchukuri once worked in a factory but for the past five years has been selling clothes at the marketplace. "Here," she said, "almost everyone worked in factories. Those factories have closed and people are jobless. Probably 70 percent are without work." Buchukuri supplements her monthly government pension of 14 lari (roughly $7) with her kiosk. She says many people in the jobless economy cannot even scrape together anything to sell.

Down the road from Rustavi, the Krtsanisi Military Training Base looks like a boomtown by comparison. The Soviets operated the base, and the Americans have rehabilitated it for the Train and Equip program. Anzori Ghlighvashvili, who also works in the market, seemed not to know about opportunities to work at the base. But she said any work for Americans could hardly be less dignified than enterprise in the town. "People collect rotten tomatoes at the marketplace and eat them," she said. "People are really starving."

Another Rustavi resident, Uza Blagidze, sees the widespread unemployment as dangerous. Though students have protested over Georgia's disastrous economy, Blagidze says work would quell a lot of discontentment. "Young people don't work [now]. They all just sit around. When people don't work, it ends badly. They become involved in all sorts of bad activities."

Despite Medico Jibladze's excitement, the American presence may not cure all that ails Rustavi's economy. Hatia Jinjikhadze, public affairs service information assistant at the US Embassy in Tbilisi, said the American military built houses and tents, restoring the base to train Georgian troops. An American spokesperson said civilian hiring had been the responsibility of a local contractor, who also wasn't at liberty to discuss the hiring process. According to Georgians working on the base, most of the several dozen Georgians on the job are from Tbilisi, not Rustavi.

Mzia Natmeladze, of Tbilisi, found work soon after the base reopened and has been working as a cleaning lady. She was excited about the salary, $150 or double the average salary in Tbilisi. "It's going to help a lot," Natmeladze said. "I don't have many definite plans yet, but my children will start going to swimming class."

Editor's Note: Molly Corso is a journalist and photographer based in Georgia.

Posted October 4, 2002 © Eurasianet