State of Emergency Enforced in Bird Flu Affected District in Adjara

On February 28 Parliament approved with a 138 – 2 vote the President?s decree on a state of emergency in the Khelvachauri district of Adjara Autonomous Republic ? an area affected by the H5N1 virus.

The President?s decree on a state of emergency envisages confiscation of live poultry, as well as poultry products in the Khelvachauri district. The decree also orders a ban on hunting of wild birds and confiscation of hunting guns from the local population and restriction of movement, if necessary. According to the presidential decree, the state of emergency will be imposed until October 1, 2006.

Before voting, opposition parliamentarians called for a caution while deciding on a state of emergency for seven months.

?This area [Khelvachauri district] is in immediate proximity to Batumi and [many] sea resorts. So while announcing a state of emergency there for seven months, which will include the summer season, we should think over what kind of effect it will have on tourism there,? MP Ivliane Khaindrava, from the opposition Republican Party, said at a parliamentary session on February 28.

He also said that according to the Georgian Constitution, if there is a state of emergency announced in any part of the country, the Parliament must adopt a decision over the holding of any elections that have been scheduled throughout other territories of the country. 

?So the statement by Mr. Paliko Kublashvili [a parliamentarian from the ruling National Movement party] that this decision for a state of emergency is not politically-motivated can be questioned. If the state of emergency lasts for the next seven months, the Parliament will have to decide whether to hold local self-governance elections [in autumn] or not. And if it is not in the interests of the ruling party, elections might not be held,? MP Khaindrava said.

But Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze responded to this claim that there will be no threat to the holding of local elections.

?I have just talked with the PM [Zurab Nogaideli] and he said he is very hopeful that the government?s measures to prevent the further spread of bird flu seems to be effective, so there are optimistic forecasts that  this state of emergency will not be needed for the next seven months,? Nino Burjanadze said.

Burjanadze also said that she has already instructed Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Issues Levan Bezhashvili to start working over a new legislative base, which will enable the government to perform all necessary measures in a similar situation without resorting to the implementation of a state of emergency.

?As we have never experienced this before, the only legal base for this situation was to announce a state of emergency, but I think in the future we should have an appropriate legal base which will rule out the use of state of emergency in these kinds of situations,? Burjanadze added.

The opposition parliamentarians also demanded that the executive government take measures to compensate losses caused by the culling of domestic poultry in the area affected by the bird flu.

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