People interested in truth over Shovi landslide, not another “farce” by UNM, ruling party – For Georgia

The For Georgia opposition party founded by former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia on Tuesday said the public was interested in the establishment of truth over the August 3 deadly landslide in the country’s western Shovi resort, killing 25, not “another farce staged” by the United National Movement opposition party – the largest opposition group in Georgia – and the current ruling Georgian Dream party. 

 

The party said its goal was to establish the truth about the disaster, “objectively assess” the Government’s response to the landslide, identify the responsible persons in a bid to “prevent similar tragedies” in the future, amid the Government’s “information war and an ongoing defamation campaign against the survivors” of the disaster, who claim they had been stranded in the landslide for hours and that the authorities could have saved more in the case of an effective response. 

 

The party claimed before raising the question of creating an investigative commission in the Parliament over the landslide, it had launched a pre-investigation process using parliamentary mechanisms and sent “dozens of questions” to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Internal Affairs.

 

It added the UNM was demanding the Parliamentary commission for its “own benefit”:and “helped” the ruling party shift the attention onto another topic, rather than answering key questions. 

 

“We believe at this stage discussing the issue of creating an investigative commission is turning the process into a political confrontation, which will not serve to establish the truth, but will help the GD of waging a hybrid war against its own citizens, confronting the opposition and even the people affected by the disaster with an absurd narrative to avoid responsibilities”, said the party. 

 

It stressed if the UNM refused to stop its “harmful policy” and “once again appeared as a “ring buoy” for the ruling party to avoid responsibilities, the former would have to share the “same responsibility” for the tragedy and its consequences.