On 16-17 August, representatives of the Social Justice Center paid a visit to Khurcha and Pakhulani, the villages located in proximity of the Administrative Boundary Lines, Tsalenjikha municipality.

A Pakhulani-Saberio checkpoint near the Pakhuali village is one of the two checkpoints connecting population living in Abkhazia with the rest of Georgia. However, many local residents who do not own ‘travel documents’ cannot commute or visit the neighboring Gali village to see their relatives.

A Khurcha-Nabakevi checkpoint near village Khurcha has been shut down since March 2017 cutting off any contact between communities residing in Khurcha and Gali villages. Residents of Khurcha recall daily contacts with the community in Nabakevi village and report that since the shutdown of the checkpoint children in Nabakevi can no longer attend Khurcha kindergarten while the former cannot visit their relatives and graveyard of family members and friends in Nabakevi.

Residents of both villages told the Social Justice Center that the situation with regard to their rights and social standing has become increasingly graver since August 2008 war manifested in restricted movement with the Abkhazia region and cut off social and economic ties. Both villages suffer a high migration rate due to severe social conditions and face depopulation if the trend persists. Nut production, a major source of income for the local communities has dwindled for the past few years due to lowered prices resulting from deteriorated quality. Local communities have no resources for quality harvest while no support programs have been implemented by the state.

Residents say that living in the war and conflict zone badly affects their daily life and increases their vulnerability. For example:

1. Local communities perceive the risks of conflict renewal and its impact on their daily life as since they live in a hotbed for every breakout of the conflict. For example, local communities lived the horrors of the conflicts of 1993, 1999, and 2008 with the Abkhaz and Russian military forces deployed near their homes which they had to flee three times – the traumatic experience which is still very much alive and powerful.
2. Some local residents have lost their lands and nut plantations to the so called borderization. There have been many reported cases of lost cattle as well which further exacerbates their social conditions. There have been no measures taken by the state to redress this loss including by handing over plots of land.
3. Local residents are often detained illegally by de-facto Abkhaz authorities on the allegation of crossing a so-called border which adds to financial burden.

There are no state-run programs for the communities in the close proximity to the ABL which would alleviate consequences of the war, conflicts, and vulnerability. None of these villages has been granted a status of a high mountainous settlement unlike villages close to the ABL in Shida Kartli whose population, regardless of their geographic location, have access to a series of social benefits. Nor are there any psycho-social rehabilitation programs in the villages whose population suffer from the lived experience of war traumas.

A public school building in Pakhulani is dilapidating beyond rehabilitation. Local communities demand the school building be repaired immediately especially when the school could serve children living in the village Saberio, Gali district, across the ABL.

Residents of Khurcha demand that road drainage system be repaired, roads built, and functional public transport service introduced. In addition, they also demand a nurse and a doctor work regularly at a local primary healthcare center and a school to be built. They also believe that generation of jobs in the village will slow down the migration. It is important for the state to take a proactive approach to resolving these problems.

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